m 









lite; 



ctif^ Kt r- 



\y !- I 



-^r.-f 



■(. ' - 



( 1 






'•iti- 'K* ; . 








I* s < ^- 










"^.^■i* ♦ 









































V 

.•I 















• ^ ^^ *j( 



1 • O 



.^* ^^kirni' Vo^' '*^^-' " 



'o ■• » ' 






*^o* ' 









n o 









c° .1^=^. "^^ 








Mgiti&n m Mt^hm. 




*:-5^ 



BY jfc^ 



mF^ -^ 




Rev. LrlieSffEE, A.fHJ 

V ft ' ' 

OP THBVI'«^IN1A ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



JN 

ic 



/ 



« Can w/f3^t departeilfrieads ? Ah, no ! / 

Wymin our hearts their memory Bu1rte«i4jfi§| , 
TheAhought that where they are we too shall go ' 
"Wm cast a light o'er darkest scenes of wo ; 
/Tor to their own blest dwellings in the skie^ 
y The souls whom Christ sets free exultinglyi shall rlBt." 



/ 



? 




FOURTH EDITION. 



RICHMOND, VA.: 
PUBLISEED BY THE AUTHOR. 



/ 



-V" 



^1/ 






^' 



nS-7 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

L. ROSSER, 

in the Gerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
District of Virginia. 

STEREOTTPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 



In Exchange 
Duke. Univeroity 

MAY V- 1934 




/ 



PREFACE. 



\ 



The heart has its own history. In its loneliness 
often spontaneously arise emotions of indefinable 
endearment, that seem to be prophetic of a bliss- 
ful consummation, as if breathed by invisible and 
familiar friends from the Spirit-land. Insensible, • 
at such times, of connection with rude matter 
about us, we seem to be soaring aloft to a bright 
and happy world afar, — a Paradise, an Eden of 
Love, the home of the soul, — where the Father of 
our spirits abides, surrounded by his ransomed 
and angelic family, — and among them are many of 
our own household. Anon, we seem to have 
approached so near as almost to hear the softened * 
notes" of the distant cherubim, and to inhale the 
fragrance of the Rose of Sharon and the odor of 
the "golden vials," and to see the curtain of 
immortality gently rising, and revealing familiar 
forms and faces beckoning us to a welcome place / 
among them. At such times, like Paul, we hear 
and see what it is unlawful to repeat — so sacred 
are our communings with them we love, amd so 
rude and cold the world in which we live. Or, 
like Peter on Tabor, we never would think of 



4 PREFACE. 

earth again, did not other friends and unfinished 
work recall us to the place of graves. Or, as to 
John in Patmos, a door to us seems opened in 
heaven, and we seem to hear a voice saying, 
" Come up hither, and I will show you things 
which must be hereafter;" — and suddenly the 
sterile rocks around us become a mount of glori- 
ous vision — from which, like Elijah, in a chariot 
of fire we would ascend into the open heavens, if 
the time had come to transmit our mantle to 
another. And so, like David, we cheer ourselves 
the while with the belief, that, though our sainted 
friends cannot come back to us, we shall in due 
time go to them. 

"We cannot renounce the belief that an in- 
visible spiritual world surrounds us, that other 
spirits, besides the Omniscient, take cognizance 
of our inmost feelings and tenderest emotions, 
and in some sort reciprocate our purest afiTec- 
tions, sympathize in our sorrows, and share in 
our joys. We are assured that guardian angels 
are about us, and oft we believe that sainted 
friends commingle with them, and are our com- 
panions by the way. Sometimes so intense is 
the impression that they are near us, that the. 
image seems to start from the canvas on the wall, 
and smile on us, and the summer breeze through 
the window seems to whisper messages from the 
land ©f our loved ones. The carol of birds in the 
stillness of eventide reminds us of our bereave- 
ment, and, in cadences soft and sw^et, awakens in 



PEEFACE. 5 

the soul a note ineffably tender, wliicli we wish 
we had words to express. The crystal streamlet, 
murmuring by the moss and the sedge, or rippling 
over the pebbles, or "rombling" down the slope 
of the mountain, has, too, a voice the soul can 
interpret, but cannot express. The stars in the 
serene heavens, in the hour of melancholy, twinkle 
so mildly on us, that our sadness is soothed, for 
they seem to be 

"Telling a touchmg story 

Of friends long past to the kingdom of loye, 
Where the soul wears its mantle of glory." 

"We love the graves of our sainted dead; and 
every visit we make where they repose we in- 
stinctively recall what they were, and as instinct- 
ively believe that their spirits are the same. In 
the solemn sanctity of the churchyard, or the old 
family burial-ground, we often feel a deeper throb 
of immortality, and a warmer glow of social affec- 
tion, than elsewhere ; for those that loved us seem 
to be there, and we love to linger there, because 
there we laid them, and there we parted from 
them last, and there we can visit them again, and 
we would feel desolate if we knew not the sacred 
spot where their loved forms are sleeping in the 
deep and lonesome slumber of death. "We love 
the wild rose that blossoms, and the greensward 
that waves, and the evergreen that bends, and the 
vine that ^droops, over their graves. Treasured 
m.ementos awaken the tenderest reminiscences, 
and the departed are associated with every object 



U PEEFACE. 

we know they loved most, and we love tlie tMngs 
they loved because they loved them. In the 
impulse of affection, we would die to meet them 
again, if by dying we knew we should do so, and 
find them the same they were when with us on 
earth. Oh, who, when his work is done, would not 
resign his body to repose beside the graves of his 
sleeping friends, that he might rejoin their blessed 
spirits in heaven? "When Sarah died in Kirjath- 
Arba, "Abraham came to mourn for her, and to 
weep for her," and he buried her "in the cave, in 
the end of the field of Machpelah;" and when 
Abraham, died, his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, laid 
him by the side of Sarah. 

It may be you have just returned from the 
grave to your dreary home, where the loved one 
never, never can come back again. Suddenly the 
sunshine of life has faded into gloom, and the 
fireside is clothed with mourning and grief. Un- 
heard now is the sound of approaching or receding 
footsteps, and no more in this life, except in 
memory, can the departed cheer you with the 
smiles of love, or bless you with the offices of 
friendship, or instruct you with the counsels ol 
wisdom; and through the dwelling, just now so 
cheerful and joyous, a deep melancholy reigns, 
which no words can describe, and which the 
following pages are designed to relieve. ligature 
speaks in tones of sadness and uncertainty, till a 
voice, clear and distinct, from the Spirit-land 
itself, is heard. 



PREFACE. 7 

"We shall survey tlie whole ground, as far at 
least as we are able, on which the hope of recog- 
nition is founded; and in doing so, we cordially 
avow that to us no hope of the soul is invested 
with so much interest and value as that of meet- 
ing and knowing our friends in heaven, except 
that one most blissful hope, the hope of meeting 
and knowing Him "who loved us, and gave him- 
self for us." It is the presence of our friends that 
constitutes all that is worthy of the name of home 
in this wilderness world ; and, bowed into the dust 
as we are on their death, our grief is relieved only 
in proportion as we hope to rejoin them beyond 
the wilderness. "What, then, besides the exception 
we have made, can so enlist our hearts as the sub- 
ject of this treatise? Home! and Heaven! 
blessed names ! A thousand unutterable thousrhts 
and feelings crowd upon us as soon as they are 
mentioned ? 

We make a brief statement of the general 
arrangement of this volume, and shall then detain 
the reader no longer from the meditations that 
have been so pleasant to us. 

The immortality of the soul is first considered, be- 
cause, if the soul be not immortal, recognition after 
death is out of the question. The immortality of 
the soul may be doubted indeed by but few, and 
yet the consideration of it may not only be plea- 
sant in itself, but an agreeable introduction to the 
consideration of the doctrine of recognition. 

Part First embraces arguments derived from 



8 PREFACE. 

Nature, Reason, and tlie Scriptures, in favor of 
the recognition of those we have known. 

Part Second embraces arguments in favor of 
the stronger position, that we shall know those 
we have not known ; from which follows the less 
from the greater, — that is, that we shall recognise 
those we have known. 

Part Third embraces arguments in support of 
the exaltation and perpetuation of particular friend- 
ships in heaven. 

Part Fourth embraces the consideration of 
objections. 

The conclusion contains the consolatory and 
practical application of the subject. 

Petersburg, Yiroinia, Oct. 20th, 1855. 



ANALYSIS. 



PAQE 

Preface < 3 



INTRODUCTION. 
Immortality of the Soul 13 

PART I. 

RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN OF THOSE WE HAVE KNOWN. 

Chap. I. — The Argument from Nature 27 

Chap. II. — ^Arguments from Reason. 

1. Consciousness of personal identity inde- 

structible 35 

2. Memory will continue forever 41 

3. Recognition essentially inyolved in the doc- 

trine of the Resurrection 50 

4. The proceedings of Judgment necessarily 

involve recognition 60 

5. Intercourse in Heaven involves recognition... 66 

Chap. III. — A.rguments from the Scriptures. 

I. The hope of recognition impressively set forth 

in the Old Testament 69 

1. "Gathered unto his people" 69 

2. The case of David 71 

n. The doctrine of recognition plainly taught in 

the New Testament 75 

1. The case of the Bethany family 75 

2. The case of the rich man and Lazarus... 78 

3- Fellowship of the saints with Abraham, &c. 80 

9 



^ 



10 ANALYSIS. 

PAOE 

4. Mutual knowledge set forth 81 

5. The work of the Christian ministry involves 

recognition 91 

6. Ground of comfort to the Church in bereave- 

ment 95 

PART n. 

recognition: the argument from the greater to 

THE LESS. 

Chap. I. — ^We shall know the Angelic Orders 98 

Chap. II. — Facts of Scripture. 

1. The case of the rich man and Lazarus 113 

2. The transfiguration of Christ , 114 

3. Christ in his glorified humanity 117 

4. The visions of John in the Apocalypse 130 

PAET III. 

exaltation and perpetuation of particular 
friendships. 

Chap. I. — The Argument from Reason 132 

Chap. II. — The Argument from Reason continued 151 

Chap. III. — The Argument from the Scriptures. 

1. Christ had his favorite Apostles 154 

2. Christ had his favorites among private Chris- 

tians 155 

3. The Apostles had their favorite churches 

and particular friends 156 

4. The relation between the minister of Christ 

and his converts 157 

Chap. IV. — A Difficulty considered: The medium of future 
recognition. 

1. In the intermediate state 169 

2. After the resurrection 179 



ANALYSIS. 11 



PAET ly. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

PAGE 

Chap. I. — Several Minor Objections. 

1. If the doctrine were true, it would be more 

clearly revealed 180 

2. The heavenly life will be much higher than 

this 180 

3. The love of Christ will absorb every other 

affection 180 

4. The number of heaven's inhabitants excludes 

the possibility of knowing them all 180 

5. The change in the resurrection will render 

recognition impossible 180 

Chap. II. — Objections continued. 

1. Particular friendships will be absorbed in 

universal charity 184 

2. Grief will be felt in the absence of those who 

have been dear to us on earth 186 

CONCLUSION. 

1. Practical 191 

2. Consolatory 196 






# - 



\ \ :-a-^j: 






// 




■p — 'f .. .--'7~-«. — 



/. 



C\^ ^ ydi^ <h 



v_. 






INTRODUCTION. 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

There is a deep impulse to eternity in every human 
bosom, a profound longing after some grand consummation 
of our being, to which we feel charmed onward by a power 
superior to ourselves. TVe no sooner begin conscious exist- 
ence, than spontaneously we go forth in pursuit of some long- 
lost, final good, corresponding to the magnitude of the pre- 
parations without us, and the mystery and intensity of the 
impulses within us. Somewhere in the future, beyond the 
sunset of this world, we anticipate the establishment of our 
being, and we give to the future its boundlessness and its 
greatness, because we feel that we are formed for it and -are 
destined to it, though we feel there are stupendous obstacles 
lying in our path, which cannot be surmounted without 
calling constantly to our aid the same power that ever 
allures us onward. Heathendom, with its sublime philoso- 
phy, science, arts, and education, amid tones of deepest sad- 
ness and despair, felt an under-current of spiritual energy 
struggling for dominion, and heard the fainter whispers 
and echoes of a ^^Name above every other name,'' to be re- 
vealed in due time. ^'Golden threads of immortality" ran 
through the whole tissue of antiquity, which the ancients 
in vain attempted to trace to their origin and end, and of 

which they formed the finer material that adorned their 

2 13 



14 INTRODUCTION. 



gods, and heroes, and temples. Many of the noble words 
of heathen niythology, descriptive of worship, religion, 
sanctity, piety, atonement, sacrifice, faith, initiation, were 
but the impressive preparations for the splendid revelations 
of the gospel, and only required a satisfactory explanation 
to confirm the long and ardently cherished hope of the 
world's redemption. Heathen philosophers were but the 
seers, and heathen poets the bards, of initial grace, pre- 
paring their disciples, ''like those of John the Baptist,''* 
to be presented to Christ for perfection. Till this time, 
though they could not call themselves the followers of Christ, 
they called themselves the followers of Plato. Though they 
were ignorant of the refreshing shade and fruits of the Tree 
of Life, and the healing waters of Siloam, they loved the 
pleasant groves of Academia, and the crystal fountains of 
Helicon, Parnassus, and Pindus. Though they beheld not 
the charms of holiness, they cultivated the taste for the sub- 
lime and beautiful. Though not a temple of the true God 
was found in all their cities, they reared structures for the 
worship of their deities, and selected and consecrated spots 
to sacred services. Though their religious impulses were 
perverted by ignorance, superstition, policy, or education, 
they still cherished reverence for some supreme ruling 
power, to whom they dedicated altars, in the earliest in- 
stances composed of earth or ashes, erected in the open air, 
or in sombre recesses in solitary woods, or upon the tops of 
mountains, or in retired grottoes in the sides of the moun- 
tains, or in shady arbors formed of laurel, or beneath some 
venerable oak or other sacred tree, till at length, in the pro- 
gress of refinement and civilization, splendid temples were 
erected, surrounded by the most costly enclosures, and 
adorned with a gorgeous profusion of altars, statues, and monu- 

* Trench, Hulsean Lectures. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 



ments. In a word, the whole heathen world inclined tc 
some great central truth for the solution of its sacred myste- 
ries and the explanation and confirmation of its deep and 
sacred impulses. 

1. The admirable harmony of the material universe over 
our heads, suggests the belief that there is another state, in 
which the confusion, irregularity, and imperfection of the 
world we inhabit shall be corrected and repaired. The 
constitution of the human mind, though now in magnificent 
ruins, suggests the belief of its destination to a higher 
sphere; though humbled in the dust, it instinctively refers 
its noble powers to a period infinitely exalted above the pre- 
sent changeful and transitory life. Or if this spontaneous 
conviction be interpreted as an illusion of a frail and transi- 
tory being, the inquiry arises, why should divine wisdom 
and goodness have connected so frail and transient a being 
with such a splendid and harmonious system as that which 
surrounds him, and overawes him on every hand? Admit 
man's destination to a higher state, and he-is above the pre- 
sent system ; deny his immortality, and he is not only helow 
the present system, but the present system itself suggests 
no end in vindication of the wisdom and goodness of Grod. 
AVhat! was the mind of man originally constituted to be 
absorbed and vanish amid the enterprises and trivial pur- 
suits of a few years ? Grant that this world had an origin, — 
and blind infidelity only denies that it had, — and no argument 
can prove that its Creator confines the existence of man to 
the present state, or that his hopes of the future are illusory. 

Let it not be assumed that man knows the ybrce and limit 
of his existence through the medium of the senses. Intuition 
is connatural with the human mind, and hence existence 
cannot be inferred from sense. The soul has its own sepa- 
rate and independent spontaneity, prophetic of its immortal- 
ity and indefinite expansibility. As a latent fire from the 



16 INTRODUCTION. 



smitten rock issues a brilliant and splendid ligbt, a new 
essence, possessing nothing in common with the rude mate- 
rial in which it had long lain reposed, — or as the lightning, 
bursting from the bondage of the midnight thunder-cloud, 
flashes out, a new element of resplendent glory, — so the soul, 
issuing from its terrestrial confinement, will ascend, a new 
being, to the consummation of its existence, amid higher 
harmonies; the heavens and the earth shall open, and be 
covered with a momentary glory, as it ascends to the per- 
fection to which it aspires. 

2. The phenomena of mind cannot explain the origin 
and issue of mind, since by phenomena we are led forward 
interminably into the future, where the explanation reposes 
in the conclusion of the series. The unfathomed mystery of 
the soul, and the incomprehensibility of God, which are 
intuitive, fundamental, and unexplained facts, are strong 
presumptive arguments in favor of our future and exalted 
being. And by the light of revelation, borne upward in a 
succession of reflections and inspirations, we presently reach 
an intellectual and moral altitude we cannot measure, from 
which we look down with profound solicitude and upward 
with kindled hope, exclaiming, '^ There is one difficulty moi-e!" 
— every difficulty surmounted becoming in our progress a sub- 
lime argument that we are pursuing the appropriate path 
toward our first cause and ultimate end ; every moment 
confirmed in the belief that the universe should have con- 
genial inhabitants, and that we have already passed its fron- 
tiers and entered upon its possession ; every moment antici- 
pating that the next step will diffuse a sudden and sufficient 
light upon great questions now partially explained, or wholly 
involved in mystery ; every moment assured that the com- 
prehensive issue will have its own overwhelming evidence 
and its own indubitable history; every moment reminded, 
too, of our grandeur and our nothingness, of our dignity 



INTRODUCTION. 17 



and our dependence, of our immortality and our infancy, of 
our origin and our destiny; and every moment the more 
impressed with the duty of being content with the morning 
twilight that dawns clear and calm on this distant portion 
of our inheritance, and that warms our hearts into reverence, 
confidence, and hope. 

3. All the fundamental facts of the present are connected 
with ultimate ends in the future. A means without a cor- 
responding end is an absurdity; a faculty without a corre- 
sponding object is an absurdity. Every expectation of good, 
and every apprehension of evil, partakes of the nature of 
sure prophecy; and hence every man may find constituent 
in his present character indications of his final destiny. The 
development of the fundamental laws of nature is not more 
certain than the development of the fundamen tal laws of mind. 
As the seed contains in its unsightly coil all the inherent energy 
that is to bear it through the amplitude of its history, till it 
is consummated in summer beauty and autumnal perfection, 
— as the acorn, for example, contains within its organized 
atoms all the dormant energy that is to support the oak 
through a thousand storms, — so the mind has an inherent 
power, that is to sustain it through all the eventful periods 
of its immortality. The slow development of this energy, 
in the present state, is to be ascribed to the nature of the 
present state, in which 'Hhe whole creation groaneth for 
the glorious liberty of the sons of God, the adoption, to wit, 
the redemption of the hodi/." Though man lost the holi- 
ness of Adam, he did not lose the original latent energy of 
mind. The purification and development of this latent 
energy in the proper direction are two of the grand objects 
of the plan of redemption by Jesus Christ, and consequently 
they invest the redemptive principle with inconceivable 
importance. No wonder prophets and apostles, in referring, 
under inspiration, to the grace of God, employ such great 



18 INTRODUCTION. 



terms. Lost angels retain all the latent mental energy 
(except that of holiness) which they had in original crea- 
tion ; and the banishment of wicked men " from the presence 
of God, and the glory of his power/' will not destroy this 
innate energy. The repression and confinement of this 
energy in evil will constitute a principal element in the re- 
tribution of lost angels and men. This is impressively set 
forth in the Scriptures under the figures of ^'- a great gulf 
Jixedj' impassable; ^^ chains,'' restraint; ^^ gnashing of 
teeth," energy recoiling upon itself; ^'bottomless pit," not 
only utter hopelessness, but the endless development of men- 
tal energy in evil and misery ; ''banished from God, and 
the glory of his power/^ severed completely from the only 
proper sources of mental development in the universe and 
in eternity : all this is the ''second death/^ and the unutter- 
able consciousness of it. 

The natural energy of mind is indestructible and inter- 
minable, and the test of its strength is its development. The 
labors of to-day are preliminary to those of to-morrow ; the 
labors of time are preliminary to those of eternity ; and so 
on in endless and harmonious succession. Increasinf;' 

o 

strength diminishes difficulty. Every achievement is an 
accession of power. What, then, is the final object of men- 
tal energy? This world, we have seen, is inferior to it; and 
if this world were a paradise, life is too short for the mind's 
maturity in it ', and hence we must look to a higher existence 
for the mind's maturity, to which we are allured by forces 
on all sides, and to which we are directed by the unerring 
and animating light of revelation. 

4. It is the nature of pure reason, noblest faculty of the 
mind, to deduce unity and harmony from all the simple ab- 
stract judgments of the understanding, and thus, hj general- 
izing, XQ2iQ\\ the Absolute Cause and final end — each particu- 
lar truth leading to a general truth, and each general truth, 



INTRODUCTION. 19 



with its whole class of truths, leading nearer to the absolute, 
the unconditional, the necessary, the final, till the mind in 
rapture beholds the simple, central, all-comprehending Truth 
of the Universe, — the totality of all phenomena, mental and 
material. We feel no alarm for our hopes, or for the reve- 
lations of the Bible, when some new science threatens to 
invade them. Though great minds have discovered the 
almost obliterated traces of ancient nations, and genius and 
science have surveyed the border-lands of unknown and 
nameless worlds, and ventured even beyond the bounds of 
time in search of the primeval spoils and exuviae of our own 
globe, entombed in fossiliferous strata during alternate and 
incalculable cycles of life and death, yet Grod, the Father of 
our spirits, like the sun, which hideth himself in his own 
splendor while he disperses darkness from every thing else, 
'' holdeth back the face of his throne,^' — concealeth himself 
in the dazzling effulgence of his own perfections, — till he 
shall light up the dark universe with his glory ; thus reprov- 
ing the pride and presumption of ignorance, as he appro- 
priates the successive achievements of science to the final 
and complete confirmation of the truth of the Bible. Though 
through a long series of profound researches, extending, with 
occasional intervals, over many centuries, and conducted by 
most of the renowned countries of antiquity, down to the 
present brilliant period, the aim of the whole process has 
been to approach the final truth, divine Providence has per- 
mitted this employment of mind, in order that the simple 
statements of the Bible may receive some confirmation from 
man himself; that, in whatever department of scientific or 
philosophical investigation the mind may take its direction, 
it may finally reach a conclusion in exact conformity with 
the dignified declarations of the Bible -, that, as every im- 
provement upon a preceding system, in any science, is made, 
it shall be added to the lore of mind, and lead man nearer 



20 INTRODUCTION. 



the perception of the primeval truth revealed in the Bible; 
that what now can only be the objects of faith and hope 
shall finally become the subjects of conviction ; that the 
bewildered mind of man, after all its fatigue and skepticism, 
may cordially and satisfactorily admit that in not the least 
particular, in any department of scientific knowledge, any 
inconsistency with the truth of the Bible exists. Thus, 
Moses furnishes man with no philosophy, no laws of physics, 
states no theory, defends no hypothesis, indulges in no spe- 
culation; but announces positive facts, fundamental laws, 
ultimate truths, thoughts and acts and purposes of God, as 
so many simple propositions, composing one grand and har- 
monious system of first principles, for man through a long 
succession of ages to elaborate and arrange for the confirma- 
tion and satisfaction of human hopes. When the mind, 
therefore, shall arrive at the ultimate truths of all science, 
the truth of the Bible will be recognised xx^on. philosophical 
ground — a department of collateral evidence in support of 
revelation, cumulative in its strength, as that derived from 
prophecy and providence. 

We seem to have forgotten that, in the nature of things, 
it is necessary that Grod should prepare the minds of men 
and angels, by the most stupendous and magnificent pre- 
liminaries, for the future, transcendent, and endless evolu- 
tions of his Godhead. The present great universe is but an 
introduction to all this ; for it is rational to suppose that, 
on the laws of progress along the endless chain of the known 
and unknown that conducts us into the future, in some dis- 
tant era of mind the present limits of actual existence will 
be but the old familiar valleys in which we sported in our 
childhood, from which we shall ascend to the mountain sum- 
mits, over which other stars and suns are shining, and be- 
yond which brighter visions expand on the interminable 
immensity. Exalted to the position where the dependence 



INTRODUCTION. 21 



of every thing upon one general truth is perceived and 
traced to the nature of the all-perfected Being, the mind 
will enjoy a perpetual sabbatic rest in the love and contem- 
plation of that Being — in Himself, in the past, and in the 
forthcoming and endless manifestations of Himself. 

5. We reach the same conclusion from a consideration of 
the nature and tendency of man's social nature. The inef- 
fably, unspeakably tender, pure, and substantial union be- 
tween the three Persons in the Grodhead — a profound and 
inexplicable fact and mystery — is the original standard of 
the social nature of man ) and if such be the original, what 
must be the image? The final end of the social principle in 
man is not only to associate him with God and his holy 
family, but to exalt him to the highest happiness of which 
mind is capable. The constitution of society was ordained 
for happiness, and is founded upon the social principle. 
Every man, though he be an infidel, is bound to obey the 
laws of nature ; and whoever disregards their authority not 
only becomes an enemy to himself, but to God and the hu- 
man race. The indications of nature in man are such, that, 
independently of the knowledge of God, man discovers that 
be is made for society; and when the explanatory 'kno^N- 
ledge of the God of love is added; the most lively energy is 
given to the social sentiments, and is designed to carry 
them to the highest degree of perfection. The law of na- 
ture, explained by the gospel, and proceeding from the will 
of God, becomes the supreme law of man's conduct, and 
enjoins the most enlightened and sacred obligation — "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thy- 
self.'' The social principle pervades the holy universe. 
God for man declares a love whose utmost intensity nO lan- 
guage can describe, no figures illustrate, no types express, 
no imagery represent, no actions exhaust^ no periods unfold. 



22 INTRODUCTION, 



All the angels are transported in every case of penitence 
among men. They all rejoiced at the opening of one of the 
seals of redemption ; and we know not that they are em- 
ployed in any other service but what respects the salvation 
of man. All the prophets and apostles displayed the same 
holy sympathy; and so does the true church in all ages. 
What vast interests then must be involved ! what great re- 
sults must be impending ! what grand consummation must 
be connected with man as a social being ! 
/ 6. Love is the noblest ornament of our nature, and the 
{ sweetest passion that burns in the bosom of man or angel. 
It is a sublime enchantment, that insensibly disengages us 
from ourselves, and transports us beyond the limit of our 
being in search of the congenial out of ourselves. The soul, 
elevated by the sublime idea of the God of love, takes the 
first step toward immortality, exclaiming, ^^I shall be satis- 
Jied when I awake with thy likeness.^' Love is happiness, 
and the mind, expanded by love, is soon in motion to make 
everybody else happy within its reach. What then is the 
final object of love ? It Js jQot truth — nor is it beauty — nor 
is it order — nor is it nature — nor, least of all, is it self; it 
is God himself, and all who are like Grod. , Love languishes 
for these through all life, and is never fully content with the 
sweetest glimpses of them in this life. Over all sufi'ering, 
temptation, self-denial, sacrifice, want, persecution, and death 
itself, love goes forward for its maturity to Grod in heaven, 
where the face will beam with a sentimental glory, and 
every attribute be grace, and the exercises of the afi^ctions 
be in unison with the music of the spheres, the melody of 
angels, the songs of saints, and the perfections of God. 

7. We may conclude the future has its origin in the 'pre- 
sent. The soul reposes on the only permanent foundation 
of happiness when all its hopes are connected with duty. 
The world appears inefiably beautiful, and incalculably valu- 



INTRODUCTION. 23 



able, when it appears contributing to the development of 
faculties of mind whose termination is unknown, and evolv- 
ing a future in which its true destiny is confined. The 
emotions of immortality — the aspirations of a long celebrity 
— the sighs of the soul for the unbounded future as our 
country — are encouraged only when it is known that the 
present is connected with duty. Then the soul is as a 
flower, daily unfolding its petals, to bloom forever, and dif- 
fuse its fragrance as incense through eternity. The instinct- 
ive fear of spirit, the apprehension of some fearful disaster 
when the awful mysteries of the present state shall be ex- 
plained, the expectation of magnificent things in the future 
world, the profound anxiety of the soul respecting its cause, 
its design, and the design of the vast universe it inhabits, 
the oppressive idea of the infinite, supreme, and eternal God, 
are not the results of material affinity, nor the spontaneous 
accidents of refined matter; or the soul would recoil from 
the confines of a dark and silent futurity. But these are the 
elements of a destiny that is to survive the heavens and the 
earth — elements which religion explains and classifies by 
connecting them with the future, and directing them to the 
approving decision of the Judge on the last day. y' 

8. [We have already stated that man is ever anticipating 
some point in the future in which his destiny shall be settled 
/ forever. Enchanted in this life from one delusion to an- 
d 1 1 \ other, the charm is soon flown, and the last and best bound- 
ary yet appears in the distance. The first draught of earthly 
pleasure is always the sweetest, and succession soon results 
in satiety; the heart is tormented with the remembrance 
that what is past is gone forever, and depressed by the con- 
sciousness that the past has contributed nothing to the wel- 
fare of the future. But faith, the representative of endless 
duration — not the work of nature, not a deduction, nor 
taught by men, — but a vital principle of divine grace — com- 



24 INTRODUCTION 



mits the whole man, and the whole life, with every event, 
and every tendency, to the superintendence of Grod, and ia 
to the heart what reason is to the mind. Conscious of 
its weakness, vice contracts the soul into a small space, and 
draws into a single point its whole existence. If it wanders, 
it is in dark and gloomy regions, where it is soon terrified by 
the phantoms of departed pleasures and flagrant sins, and 
where every step it seems to approach the confines of some 
unknown country of appalling realities. But faith is a prin- 
ciple that sees the end from the beginning; that explains 
every thing and every duration ; that, in the disquietudes 
and uncertainties of this life, settles the soul in the blissful ■ 
hope of existence in the light and glory of God, the Foun- J 
tain of all being. 

9. Finally : let it not be supposed that the soul's matu- 
rity will be the limit of its progress. No; but in turn it be- 
comes the basis of a higher and more glorious series. We 
shall take up existence where Adam forfeited it and angels 
found it. As some mighty mind in this life — Bacon's, for 
instance — out of the materials of the past founds a new era 
and gives a new direction to human thought; so the close of 
our earthly state will be the epoch in the history of our be- 
ing, from which shall be dated the unrestrained and endless 
development- of mind in exact harmony with all that is great, 
and grand, and supreme, in eternity. 

Here we are arrived at our Father's house at last, and we 
are ourselves again. And we look around for our friends : 
nothing is more natural. Are they with us ? Do we know 
them ? Let us interpret nature again. Let us descend into the 
vale again, and commune with our grief. The soul knows its 
own grief best. No one loved our departed friends as we do. 
No one feels their loss as we do; no one misses them as much 
as we do. No heart on earth retains so perfectly and inde- 
libly the image of their loveliuess as ours does ; and that 



INTRODUCTION. 25 



is the precious memento which spirit gives to spirit, and 
which no artist can portray on canvas as it is impressed on 
our hearts. It has entered into our very being as a living 
reality; it seems to have become a part of ourselves, and we 
bear it along as a part of our destiny. We cannot realize 
the idea of its utter obliteration. It is the unfading pledge 
of the remembrance and return of the dear original. It 
were as difficult, it seems, to cease to be, as to violate this 
law of our nature. The waste of life and change cannot 
deface or dim the likeness love left us years ago. Every 
feature still is perfect j that eye, that brow, that smile, that 
face, that form, the dress, are as vivid still as an actual ex- 
istence- Unchanged it must endure in us, though every 
thing else change and dissolve to dust around us. It is 
stamped with our own immortality — it must continue till 
the heavens and the earth are no more. It has a mysterious 
import of certain reunion. Though vanished from sight 
ROW is the original, this image we retain most sacredly im- 
pressed upon our hearts, assured, with the certainty of a pro- 
phecy, that somewhere in the great universe of being it still 
lives ; and could we this instant start in pursuit of it, we 
would inquire where the angels of God and the good abide, 
and forthwith would we direct our course straight to that 
happy place ; expecting, it might be, every moment to see 
the happy one on the way to meet us. This much we know 
is true;- — ^so long as we remember and love, we hope to meet 
again; ay, so long as we love, we cannot forget. 

Imagine not that this is but the delicious dream of the 
«oul. Ever since man was banished from Paradise he has 
wandered in the wilderness, day and night, ever reminded 
by a mysterious impression, to" which he cannot give utter- 
ance, that he is not what he was — that he is not what he 
may be — that, though much is lost, all is not lost — that 
what is lost may be recovered — that beyond the wilderness 



26 INTRODUCTION. 



there is a world whose flowers are unsoiled by the dust, un- 
scorched by the sun, untorn by the tempest, unwithered by 
the frost, ever beautiful and fadeless. He feels now that he 
is alone; that his best friends are invisible; that the deep 
throbbing of his soul, which he can no more repress than he 
can stop the beating of his heart, is that he may see them 
again, and be with them forever. He wanders on, inquir- 
ing, Where is my Father? where is my First Cause ? where 
is my Chief Grood? where is my Ultimate End ? where are 
the rest of the members of His family ? where in the bound- 
less universe may I find Him, and rejoin them? where shall 
the heart enjoy the full freedom for which it sighs ? It is 
more than imagination that peoples the heavens with holy 
and exalted intelligences, and the good man feels he would 
be at home anywhere with them. Never can we believe 
that God created the bright sun merely to light us to the 
grave; nor do we believe that it is bright enough to light us 
a single step beyond it; nor do we believe that the stars 
shine merely to adorn the night. We feel that sun and 
stars are but a part of our kingdom, and that we have already 
entered upon its possession, and that, though now over our 
heads, they will soon be beneath our feet and under our 
sway. Great lights are in the heavens; and we are glad to 
see them, for they awaken great thoughts and great emo- 
tions, encouraging the soul onward in its right path to its 
noble destiny. Who, then, will say this is a dream ? No : 
it is sublime faith ; such a faith as is supported by the 
strongest deductions of reason, and as is consistent with the 
true dignity, the deep promptings, of the soul, and the reve- 
lations of the word of G'^d. 



PART I. 

RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN OF THOSE WE HAVE KNOWN. 
CHAPTEE I. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 

The doctrine of recognition is essentially involved in the 
original instincts of our social nature. 

It is more than hope that supports the doctrine ; it is the 
deep, spontaneous yearning of our social nature; it is nature's 
pledge of reunion and recognition; it is the prophecy of 
our social nature, which, though we cannot fully interpret 
it in this life, we believe to be true, and to be connected 
with a glorious fulfilment in the future state. It is a funda- 
mental belief of human nature. It is universal, and hence 
cannot be invalidated by reason without abrogating that in 
us which is above reason. Who that carefully analyzes his 
mental states does not know that there sjce feelings or instincts 
which are as natural to us as reason is ? which reason may 
encourage, but never could originate? whose authority, in- 
deed, reason cannot explain away? and which exist even 
where reason is weak and sheds scarcely a single ray upon 
the future state ? If, in the indulgence of these innate and 
precious instincts and feelings, uncultivated' man cannot 
bring reason to his support, he substitutes the tenderest 
fancies in its place. 

. 1. The rude barbarian loves '^ the tale of the blue moun- 

27 



28 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



tains, and of his ancestral shadows behind them." Nature 
is to him a volume of inspiration, which kindles and ani- 
mates his hopes. In the deep solitude of the forest, as he 
presses near the mausoleums and mournful mounds and 
tombs which his rude skill has erected over the departed, 
how does he yield up his soul to hallowed reveries and 
visions of his spirit-land ! Nature whispers that the Great 
Spirit has provided some congenial home afar for his loved 
ones. How does he inquire of every breeze that murmurs 
by him, whether it had fanned the fadeless flowers of that 
beautiful country! How does he inquire of every wind 
that moans through the forest, and bears away the moun- 
tain echo, whether it had ever wafted the melody of his 
shadowy land ! How does he inquire of every wave that 
tumbles round the distant rock, or breaks with its expiring 
foam at his feet on the shore, whether it had borne upon 
its bosom the bark of his fathers, or could bear him back to 
their company ! How does he inquire of every cloud that 
floats along the blue bosom of the morning, or hangs in 
golden hues over the repose of the evening, whether it came 
from the tranquil lakes of his paradise, or reflected the light 
from the home of his blissful hopes ! How does he inquire 
of every star that twinkles in the mysterious heavens, 
whether it is the home of his loved ones, or can guide him 
to their country, or ever sparkled in their heavens ! How 
does he inquire of the moon, as she rises softly up from 
her ocean bed, or hangs like an angel's lamp in the vault 
of night, whether her beams fall upon his emerald islands, or 
bring him news from the spirits of his fathers ! How does 
he inquire of the sun, lighting up the heavens and the earth, 
whether he sheds his resplendence on his far distant country, 
or is a type of the glory of the land of his immortality ! 
How does he inquire of the promptings of his immortal soul, 
whether they are the calls of the Great Spirit to rejoin his 



THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 29 



kindred, or their own pledges of reunion ! Poor wanderer 
of the woods, these are thy sweet visions ! 

" The Brazilians console themselves on the death of their 
friends by the hope of being united again to them, and are 
accustomed to express, in their lamentations, the confident 
expectation of seeing them in the unknown regions beyond 
the mountains which skirt their horizon, to renew the 
accustomed pleasures of the chase, the dance, and the song." 
The Hindoo widow, who with a blind devotion commits her- 
self to the funeral pyre of her husband, '^ would hasten to 
the society she loves ; she would meet him in the spacious 
halls of Brahma, to spend happier days than were ever real- 
ized on earth." And "the ancient Grermans hoped to meet 
their friends again, beyond death, in a beautiful and peace- 
ful valley." 

Harbaugh, in his " Heavenly Recognition/' relates the 
following affecting incident: " Os-he-ouh-mai, the wife of 
Little Wolf, died, while in Paris, of an affection of the lungs, 
brought on by grief for the death of her young child in 
London. Her husband was unremitting in his endeavors 
to console and restore her to the love of life; but she con- 
stantly replied ' No ! no ! my four children recall me. I 
see them by the side of the Great Spirit. They stretch out 
their arms to me, and are astonished that I do not join 
them.' " And the author quotes a poem composed on the 
occasion, of which the following stanzas are extracts : — 

Hark ! heard ye not a sound 
Sweeter than wild bird's note, or minstrel's lay ? 
I know that music well, for night and day 

I hear it echoing round. 

It is the tuneful chime 
Of spirit voices ! 'tis my infant band, 
Calling the mourner from this darken'd land 

To joy's unclouded clime. 



30 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



There is a beautiful Indian legend, told by Addison in the 
Spectator, of ^^Maraton and Yaratilda," in which the de- 
voted husband comes unawares in sight of Paradise, and 
sees the shadowy forms of his wife and children, without 
their bodies. Maraton wishes to die, that he may be admit- 
ted again to their society. The Indian dreams of his dogs, 
believing that the greatest hunters shall be in the highest 
favor with Brahma. The followers of Mohammed die in 
visions of their houris' beauty. The warriors of Odin 
already drink the honey-water from the skulls of their ene- 
mies, served up for them by the beautiful ^' Valkas" of the 
"Valkalla." 

Cultivated man has entertained the same instinctive 
belief. " Who would not part,'^ said Socrates, '' with a great 
deal to purchase a meeting with Orpheus, Hesiod, and 
Homer ? If it be true that this is a consequence of death, 
I would even be glad to die often. What pleasure will it 
give to live with Palamedes, Ajax, and others, who, like 
va^, have had unjust sentence pronounced against them ? 
What an inconceivable happiness will it be to converse, in 
another world, with Ulj^sses, Lysippus, and that illustrious 
chief who led out the vast forces of the Grecian army against 
the city of Troy \" Again, the same philosopher : ''Are there 
not numbers who, upon the death of their lovers, wives, and 
children, have chosen of their own accord to enter Hades, 
induced by the hope of seeing there those they loved, and 
of living with them again V 

Said Cicero, the renowned orator of the Roman nation, 
" For my own part, I feel myself transported with the most 
ardent impatience to join the society of my two departed 
f)iends, your illustrious fathers, whose characters I greatly 
respected, and whose persons I sincerely loved. Nor is this, 
my earnest desire, confined to those excellent persons alone 
with whom I was formerly connected : I ardently wish to 



THE ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 31 



visit also those celebrated worthies, of whose honoi-able con- 
duct I have heard and read much, or whose virtues I have 
myself commemorated in some of my writings. To this 
glorious assembly I am speedily advancing ; and I would 
not be turned back in my journey, even on the assured con- 
dition that my youth, like that of Pelias, should be again 
restored. Oh glorious day ! when I shall retire from this 
low and sordid scene, to associate with the divine assembly 
of departed spirits; and not with those only whom I have 
just now mentioned, but with my dear Cato, that best of 
sons and most valuable of men ! It was my sad fate to lay 
his body on the funeral pile, when by the course of nature 
I had reason to hope he would have performed the same 
office to mine. His soul, however, did not desert me, but 
still looked back on me in its flight to those happy mansions, 
to which he was assured I would one day follow him. If I 
seemed to bear his death with fortitude, it was by no means 
that I did not most sensibly feel the loss I had sustained, it 
was because I supported myself with the consoling reflection 
that we could not long be separated.'^ 

Virgil, in the sixth book of his JEneid, describes j^neas 
as conducted by the Sibyl into Hades : — 

"JELe, with his guide, the farther fields attain'd^ 
"Where, severed from the rest, the warrior souls remain'd. 
Fidens he met, with Meleager's race. 
The pride of armies, and the soldier's grace ; 
And pale Adrastus, with his ghastly face. 
Of Trojan chiefs he view'd a numerous train, 
All much lamented, all in battle slain — 
Glaucus and Medon, high above the rest, 
Antenor's sons, and Ceres' sacred priest, 
And proud Idaeus, Priam's charioteer. 
Who shakes his empty reins, and aims his airy spear. 
The gladsome ghosts in circling troops attend. 
And with unwearied eyes behold their friend; 
Delight to hover near, and long to know 
"What business brought him to the realms below." 



32 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



The Sibyl next conducts ^neas to the Elj^sian Fields, 
where he meets, among others, his father Anchises : — 

''Here found they Teucer's old heroic race, 
Born better times, and happier years of grace. 
Assaracus and Ilus here enjoy 
Perpetual fame, with him who founded Troy." 

Anchises is represented as seeing iEneas approaching, and 

" Meets him with open arms and falling tears. 
'Welcome,' he said, 'the gods' undoubted race! 
long-expected to my dear embrace !'" 

And JEneas replies : — 

" Reach forth your hand, oh parent shade ! nor shun 
The dear embraces of your loving son ! 
He said; and falling tears his face bedew: 
Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw." 

Said Homer, the lyrist of the same nation, "We but de- 
part to meet our Ancus, our ^neas, and our Tully.^' 

The Vale of Tempe, the Hesperian Grardens, the Elysian 
Fields, and the peaceful Islands of the Blest, were the places 
where the Romans anticipated to meet their departed 
friends. 

On our social nature is stamped the impress of eter- 
nity. What is it that shoots such a cheerful light into the 
death-chamber? and why do we bow so submissively around 
the beds of our dying relatives ? In the sacred stillness 
that reigns in the house of death, why is it that we seem 
almost to hear the familiar voices of the departed, whisper- 
ing, '^ we shall meet again'^ ? Why is it that the death of 
pious friends looks so lovely, as we tearfully gaze upon the 
tranquil features of the face that just now beamed with love 
and tenderness, and even now reserves a partiog and encou- 
raging smile, expressive of perpetuated love, and prospective 
of recognition and reunion on the resurrection morning? 
Why is it, when we impress a holy kiss upon the pale, cold 



THE ARGU3iENT FROM NATURE. 83 



brow or lips of death, we believe tbat it is not the last? 
What is it that gilds the tinsel of the hearse with such a 
mild glory, as it naoves ''slow along'' to the burial-ground? 
What is it that enables us to shout, as we bend over the 
grave, " O death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is 
thy victory V What is it, when we come back home, where 
the loved one is not, and never, never will be again, that 
sooths the alBFections that would weep themselves away, an<^ 
sweetens and calms the grief of bereavement ? What is it 
that enables us to sing, this side Jordan — 

*'Tet again Tve hope to meet thee. 
When the day of Mfe is fled, 
Then in heaven with _ioy to greet thee. 

Where no farewell tear is shed" ? 

r 

What is it that produces all this when there is death in th^ 
family — the dreariest event that can befall us in this life? 
It is the spontaneous belief that our friends are as inde> 
structible^s ourselves ; that our social Bature will be retained, 
and so be the basis of recognition and a source of happiness 
in the future state. 

It is worthy of observation, that if we did not spontaneously 
believe that we shall know and love our friends in the future 
state, we would classify them with temporal and perishable 
things. If we did not feel instinctively that they are united 
to us, and we to them, by inseparable and eternal social 
bonds, it is easy to see that we would estimate them as we 
do every thing else from which we know we must be severed 
forever at death. We know that the fashion, and fame^ 
and wealth, and pleasure of this world are but vanities thai 
vanish wholly from our grasp at death ; but we place an 
indefinitely higher regard upon our friends and relations. 
Why is this ? It is nature's announcement of the perpetuity 
of our social nature and the indestructibility of social love» 
As man is immortal, why should he not feel that he is 



34 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



immortal ? as he is social^ why should he not infer that he 
will be ^0 forever? 

And how is this ? It is the work of redemption by Jesus 
Christ. The Spirit of Grod, in the work of initial grace, 
revives the social principle in fallen humanity, and this re- 
vival is universal. Hence, even unregenerate men, inter- 
preting their social nature, cordially entertain the belief 
that their loved and pious dead are unchanged in social 
nature by death. But social love is heightened in regene- 
ration, and is exalted to the highest degree possible in 
this life in entire sanctification. If, then, social love is 
not destroyed, but raised to the utmost intensity by an 
entire spiritual change of our nature in this life, how is it 
possible to conceive that social love will be destroyed by a 
change of worlds, especially when this spiritual change is 
a preparation for another and a higher existence ? Will 
God cancel his own work ? Further : our social nature 
is the seat of love for God and his people in this life : the 
annihilation of our social nature, therefore, would render 
love for God and his saints impossible in the future life, 
— a conclusion so contrary to our scriptural views of heaven, 
that we must reject it at once. Finally : the most rational 
view of redemption is, that it takes up our social nature, 
along with every other department of our mental constitu- 
tion, into the highest heaven, for consummation. ^' God is 
love;" and in heaven, where he is "all in all," our social 
nature must be exalted to the highest degree. 



CHAPTER 11. 

ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 

1. Consciousness of personal identity will continue for- 
ever. The substantial nature of mind is immutable^ and 
Lence the consciousness of our personal identity will be per- 
petual. This is a law of mind, and a sublime fact, though an 
inexplicable mystery. Whatever changes may pass before 
our eyes in domestic life — in the circle of our friends, in civil 
society, upon our bodies, or in the natural world around <us, 
from childhood through a long life, — in old age, though we 
may have forgotten nearly all our past history, we shall be 
conscious that we are the same we were in childhood. What- 
ever changes may occur in our own minds, — however the in- 
tellectual and moral powers may be cultivated and elevated, 
neglected or degraded, — whatever the degree of knowledge 
we may acquire, or guilt we may incur, or sorrow we may 
endure, or religious life we may enjoy. — whether we pass 
through life with the accumulating guilt of impenitence or 
the increasing delight of a new spiritual nature, — in a word, 
whatever intellectual and moral changes may occur in an 
uoregenerate or regenerate state, in all, and through all, the 
consciousness of our personal identity remains unchanged. 

Further: death, judgment, the downfall ^f the universe, 
the nature of heaven and of hell, and the events of eternity, 
will not destroy the consciousness of personal identity. The 
development of any dormant powers of mind, supposing any 
existing, will not do it. 

But the consciousness of our identity necessarily implies 

the perpetuation of memory; for how can I know that I am 

35 



36 RECOGNITION IN HEAVRN. 



the same to-day I was in the past, unless I remember the 
past? To say that I may have utterly forgotten the past, 
and yet know that I am the same I was in the past, implies 
the perpetuation of memory, for I remember that there is 
a past to me. Now in the heavenly state I cannot explain 
what I am, without referring to my entire past existence ; 1 
say, my entire past existence. What may have existed be- 
fore I existed is no part of my existence, but the existence 
of those who existed before me; though I may be made ac- 
quainted with what existed antecedently, as Adam ac- 
quainted his immediate posterity with what existed ante- 
cedently to them; and they their successors with the pre- 
ceding ages of the world, till the times of Moses ; and Moses 
gives a succinct history of the world down to his times ; and 
other writers, sacred and profane, successively extend the 
history of the world down to our times. And so it will be to 
the end of time. As every man has his own history, and is 
conscious of his own identity, why may not one man inform 
another of his entire individual history, just as one genera- 
tion learns that another generation existed, and ascertains 
what that generation was ? Had it been possible for every 
man that has hitherto lived to have preserved a complete 
history of himself, and were human life long enough to read 
the history of each, we might form an acquaintance with 
every child of Adam ; and thus each of us might trace back 
our genealogical descent to Adam, and follow out the mil- 
lion million interlacing threads that bind the whole race of 
man in one vast family. But the individual histories of 
mankind are all recorded in the book of God in heaven. 
The judgment, as we shall presently see, will identify every 
name and every character; and though the hand of Justice 
shall sever forever the social bonds in a million million in- 
stances, we shall know each name and each character of the 
assembled family of Adam as it appears for adjudication be- 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 37 



fore the throne. In the unrolling of the world's history 
before the throne, in the opening of the book of Providence, 
the progress and connection of things from first to last will 
appear as intelligible as the letters that form a word ; and 
every man will become as intimately acquainted with every 
generation and individual that preceded and succeeded him- 
self and his own generation, as he is with himself and his 
own generation. One generation is so connected with an- 
other, and so depends upon another, that all the generations 
of time must eventually be interwoven with one another, 
and all in order ; and the individual histories of the men of 
each generation are also so interwoven with one another, 
that at the judgment every man must be identified. We 
shall see Adam, and those who succeeded him, in the un- 
broken and prolonged succession, down to those of our own 
household, and beyond us, till our family name perished, or 
was perpetuated till time was no more. No man can destroy 
his personal identity ; and thus every man will appear in his 
own individuality at the judgment, and so be known foreve?' 
either in heaven or hell. 

Further : the external circumstances of the heavenly state — 
that is, the resurrection body, the employments, the media of 
employments, and all other glorious facts of heaven — will, it 
is true, in many respects, be different from man's circumstan- 
tial condition upon earth ; but this will not prevent a mutual 
recognition of friends in heaven. The shepherd-brethren of 
Joseph, from the hills and fields and flocks of Canaan, recog- 
nised him amid the splendors of the Egyptian court, when 
his long-cherished and restrained affection sobbed out, "I 
am Joseph, your brother ;" and the disciples of Jesus, with 
whom he conversed as a stranger on the way to Emmaus, 
recognised him soon after in the familiar service of '' bless- 
ing and breaking and giving them bread," and ecstasy spread 
around the social table. The external splendors of our Fa- 



58 



RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



ther's celestial house, and the external affinities of those who 
reside there, will not prevent our old familiar friends and 
relations from making themselves known to us. In a thou- 
sand various ways tliey will do it ; and there will be no rea- 
son why they should delay to do it, as in the case of Joseph 
and his brethren, and Jesus and his disciples. Their pure 
and fervid love will not permit them unnecessarily to delay 
a moment the rapturous disclosure. Who is this, and who 
is that, will be made known in an instant, and of none of 
them shall we be iojnorant in that " multitude which no man 
can number." Sure as our friends and relations are among 
that multitude, will we distinguish them from all the rest; 
and they us from every other inhabitant in heaven. 

What sweet surprises, what utterances of welcome, what 
tender revivals of friendship and love, what happy references 
to former scenes and associations, what blissful rehearsals of 
the sad hour of separation, what endearments of the moment 
of reunion, what overflowings of soul when we renew exist- 
ence where death suspended it, what intense delight that we 
look into each other's face, and see each other's smile, and 
hear each other's voice, and are in each other's presence 
again, what rapture in the consciousness that uncertainty, 
sorrow, and separation are over forever, what blessedness in 
the congratulations and reciprocities over which all heaven 
bends with joy, and in which God himself delights to par- 
ticipate, and what ardor of gratitude to God himself, when 
we find ourselves with our friends in the kingdom which is 
rich, boundless, and eternal ! Well do we hear of songs 
and shoutings in heaven ! well may we hope to be there ! 
well may we endure any thing to be admitted there ! 

It is inconceivable how a man in his right mind can lose 
the consciousness of his physical identity, whatever changes 
may pass upon his body. From the first to the last moment 
of conscious existence in this life, we have said we know 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 89 



that we are substantially the same, — the same through 
all the periods of childhood, youth, manhood, and age. 
Though the body may be covered with the scars of battle 
or of disease, or be mutilated, or be changed in its hue 
to the color of saffron, or be emaciated to a mere skeleton, 
still we feel we are substantially the same. Moses knew 
he was the same, though his face shone with a dazzling 
brightness; and Stephen, though his face shone like ''an 
angel's;" and Elijah, when he ascended in the chariot 
of fire; and both Moses and Elijah, when they were with 
Christ on Mount Tabor; and Peter and James and John, 
when they were present on that occasion ; and Daniel, when 
by the river Hiddekel his ^' comeliness was turned into 
corruption -/' and John, when he " fell as dead " before 
Christ in Patmos; and Saul of Tarsus, when, struck blind in 
conviction, he continued powerless three days. And so those 
living at the second coming of Christ, though changed on ' 
the blast of the trumpet, will know that they are substan- 
tially the same ; and those rising from the dead on that day 
will know that they are substantially the same, whatever 
changes they may have undergone. And if they know they 
are the same, they will either be immediately recognised as 
the same, or make themselves known as the same. And so 
of mental identity : no changes or modifications, no exalta- 
tion or degradation, as we have said, can destroy the con- 
sciousness of mental identity. Paul, when translated, and 
unable to say whether he was in the body or out of the body, 
was yet conscious of his mental identity, for he saw and 
heard what it was unlawful or not possible to repeat. And 
so of Dives ; though his purple and fine linen were laid aside, 
and his body was in the grave. And so of Lazarus; though 
his poor body had lain suffering at the rich man's gate, and 
had been buried in obscurity. And so of Abraham ; though 
his body was reposing in the cave of Machpelah. And so 




40 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



of ^Hhe kings of tbe nations, rising up from their thrones in 
hell/' and greeting Nebuchadnezzar with ''Art thou become 
like one of us ?'' There can be no consciousness of change 
or progress without a continued consciousness of identity ; 
and continued consciousness of identity implies recognition. 

Recognition is founded upon the law of progress. The 
present life is one of preparation^ which implies that the 
time must come when its sins and infirmities must be 
dropped forever, and man be raised to a state of perfec- 
tion and happiness. That which is suitable to this world 
only will be excluded from the future state ; that which is 
imperfectly developed in this state will be matured in the 
future state; and that which is good in itself will be exalted to 
the highest perfection. As the future state is the end of this 
— an improvement upon this, it is obvious, all that is required 
to enter upon the future state is not a revolution or reversing 
of this, but an extension and exaltation of it. That which 
in nature, in any degree, in this life is like heaven, or resem- 
bles Christ, certainly will not be destroyed in heaven — only 
it will be exalted, perfected, arid perpetuated. Such are the 
brightest and purest spiritual efiects of the gospel human 
nature experiences in this life. " We know not what we 
shall be : but we know that when He shall appear, we shall 
be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is; and every man 
that hath this hope in Him, purijieth himself even as lie 
is pure." This hope is consummated in us in heaven. 

No degree of expansion in knowledge, or of exaltation in 
holiness, or of intensity in happiness and love, we repeat, can 
reverse the human mind or impair its identity. On the 
contrary, the higher the degree the mind attains in the pro- 
gress of its being, the greater is its satisfaction in the con- 
sciousness of its identity : as the farmer enjoys when he sur- 
veys his fertile fields and plentiful harvests, and knows he is 
the same who in his youth felled the virgin forests and pre- 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 41 



pared tlie soil ; or as the warrior experiences when he re- 
counts to listening age and wondering youth the sanguinary 
battles in which he had engaged ; or as a Newton knows 
when he remembers the prolonged and elaborate processes 
that led him to the sublime conclusions that shed a splendid 
light upon the whole domain of science. From the remotest 
futurity, in the highest heaven, the mind will proceed upon 
the same principle. Could the ancient Jews, who by faitli 
anticipated the coming of Christ, have lived till the days of 
the Apostles, they might have said, with Paul, ^*But we all, 
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, 
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even 
as by the spirit of the Lord.'' One dispensation is prepara- 
tory to another; but human nature remains substantially 
the same, only it is exalted. And could an apostle — Paul, 
for example — come down from heaven, and be able to relate 
what he once found it impossible to relate, and even more 
than he then knew, he would be Paul still. And so of the 
patriarchs of the " palmy days of old," — Abraham for exam- 
ple — he would be Abraham still; for at the end of the world, 
" from the east and the west,'' the saints shall come and 
" sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
of heaven." The heavenly state, then, is an improvement — 
the perfection, not the revolution — of the human mind; and 
hence, as we know ourselves and one another here, we shall, 
know ourselves and one another there. That is, as heaven 
in several essential particulars is like our present state, only 
more extended and exalted than the present, we infer that 
we shall know each other in heaven. The same basis con- 
tinuing, we must he ourselves forever. We can never bring 
ourselves to feel that we are reversed in every particular. 

2. Memory will continue forever. This we might prove 
from the Scriptures, but the Scriptures we reserve for a sepa- 
rate and distinct argument. 

4* 



42 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



We are not to conclude, because we forget so much, and 
the memory is enfeebled so soon, in this life, that it will for- 
get every thing of this world in the world to come. Let us 
rather conclude that the enfeeblement of the mental consti- 
tution in this life is ascribable to the increasing debility of 
the physical constitution, and general imperfection of man's 
present condition. This leaves the question to be settled 
upon other considerations. 

(1.) We know no such law as that of utter destruction or 
annihilation in the universe. Combinations may be altered, 
but elements are indestructible. Philosophers tell us that 
the annihilation of a single atom would unbalance the ma- 
terial universe. The mind of man is a simple uncompounded 
essence — that is, spiritual, without any of the properties 
and affinities of matter, and hence is indestructible. The 
destruction of memory in the future state implies an abridg- 
ment of the mental constitution, for which we have no ana- 
logy in nature, and for -vrhich we can see no reason. Why 
should we presume that memory — and not the understanding, 
nor the will, nor the conscience, nor the affections — will be 
destroyed in another "world ? Why select the memory as 
the only subject of future annihilation in the universe of 
mind and matter? 

(2.) Besides, if the mind must be subjected to this essen- 
tial and mournful abridgment, in the future state it must be 
inferior to what it is in the present world. Then what be- 
comes of the great thoughts and sublime hopes we cherish 
respecting our future state ? Who then would not recoil 
from the future as from a period of dreariness and desola- 
tion ? The wicked man might hope to forget his sins in the 
future state, but nothing else. The value at which we esti- 
mate the mind is inconceivably diminished the moment we 
imagine it destined to an inferior state ; and we must hence 
spend the present existence in repining because Grod had not 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 43 



endowed us with a nobler constitution. But the reverse of 
this we believe to be true. Strong and numberless argu- 
ments urge us to the conclusion that the mental constitution, 
so far from being destined to an inferior state, is now but in 
the infancy of its existence, from which it is to rise to a 
state of full maturity and perfection in the future world — 
retaining all its original faculties, and, if any thing, rather 
unfolding new powers than suffering the loss of old ones. 

(3.) Upon the presumption that the mind will be deprived 
of memory in the future state, the past must become to us 
as though it had not been, — a blank in our being. How 
this must detract from the glory of God and the happiness 
of the saints in heaven, it is easy to see, but how much, it 
is impossible to say. Besides, what value would we place 
upon the present or the future, if they are not to be re- 
membered, if they are to turn into nothingness, or be as 
though they had never been ? That which cannot be pre- 
served by us is worth nothing to us. In a remote eternity, 
in the highest heaven, how could I tell what I am, or where 
I am, or what is my condition, if the glorious past be all 
blotted from my history ? Blot out the past, and the future 
has no charm for me, for that too in turn is to be blotted 
out. Destroy memory in heaven, and heaven is no longer 
heaven; for I can recognise this moment neither saint, nor 
angel, nor Christ, nor Grod, whom I knew and loved the 
moment before. 

(4.) If we shall be destitute of memory in heaven, we 
shall be in perpetual infancy in heaven. Every moment 
will be the beginning of existence, such as was the creation 
of angels, or that of Adam. Endless ages will elapse, and 
leave us where they found us, that is, unconscious that we 
have made any progress, or that any thing has occurred. 
Immortality will be a series of endless repetitions, since we 
cannot recognise the recurrence of any thing : what is new 



44 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



this moment will be new a thousand ages hence. If we shall 
hope for something better, we cannot tell, when received, 
whether it is better, since we shall have forgotten that which 
we once enjoyed. If progress indeed be made, we cannot 
be sensible of it, and names and distinctions and compari- 
sons are at an end forever. Such a state is a state of 
splendid ignorance, — ignorance of my origin, my past his- 
tory, of every thing I ever knew, soon to be ignorant of all 
around, and, in turn, to be ignorant of all to come, and 
above all to be eternally ignorant of myself. At this rate, 
remove the oldest angel in heaven from heaven, and in 
the instant his mind becomes as blank as the mind of an 
unconscious babe; or transfer the most obscure savage to 
heaven, and he will take up existence just where the angel 
left it. Such a state is worse than that of idiocy, for idiots 
remember. Now if we shall be destitute of memory in 
heaven, unless the destitution be supplied by some nobler 
faculty, heaven must be a place of boundless waste on the 
part of God and endless ignorance on the part of saints and 
angels. The vindication of God, the dignity of mind, the 
fundamental beliefs of the mind, reject the conclusion. 

(5.) The plan of redemption provides for the exaltation 
and perfection of the mental constitution in the future state. 
It is a common belief of man that he is now in a fallen 
state. This belief the word of God confirms. It is also a 
common belief of man that he is not now what he may he 
in the future world. And this also the word of God confirms. 
Every man feels within him a repressed mental and physical 
energy. These are problems which the present state can- 
not solve, and a future state must be called in to explain 
them. The whole mental constitution has been enervated 
and obscured by sin — how much we can never know till we 
learn the degree of perfection from which Adam fell. The 
regenerating and sanctifying grace of God will do much 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 45 



toward our restoration ; the separation of the soul from the 
body at death will do more ; the company of holy angels 
and saints will do still more ; the reunion of the soul and 
body in the resurrection will do still more; and the imme- 
diate presence of Grod — the infinite source of spiritual life, 
wisdom, and holiness — will complete our restoration. Then 
man will unfold all his mental powers in boundless freedom 
and without end. Until it can be shown that the continua- 
tion of memory would obstruct the development of the 
mental powers, or will be needless in the future state, no 
reason can be given why the memory will not be perpetu- 
ated beyond the present, and share with the other mental 
powers in a mighty resuscitation and in the highest per- 
fection in heaven. So far therefore from being unable to 
recognise our friends in the celestial world, the memory 
will be so vigorous in its exercises as to recall and identify 
them with a vividness and accuracy superior to the ordinary 
recognitions of this life; indeed, with infinite ease, and in 
the transparency of light, it will mirror forth our whole 
antecedent existence. Emancipated from the captivity of 
sin, extricated from confinement in gross matter, and asso- 
ciated with the spiritual body, the memory will lift the cur- 
tain of oblivion, and reveal the whole of mortal life in intense 
and cloudless light. Purified by the utmost cleansing 
efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and penetrated by the most 
active influence of the Spirit of God, the past will be revived 
with the freshness and definiteness of a present reality, and 
be radiant with every face and every form we ever loved. 
'^ Now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face : 
now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I 
am known.'' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 

(6.) The relation between probation and retribution re- 
quires the perpetuation of memory. A future life is equally 
a part of our nature and of the constitution of things. We 



46 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



have already seen the sublime intimations of this, which are 
confirmed by the surer testimony of Grod's word. Moral 
principles are immutable, and hence moral relations are 
eternal. Now we are sensible of moral obligations, and 
feel held to a retributive state by a force we cannot break. 
Every man feels that he is forming a character for eternity, 
and that every moral emotion, thought, and act, partakes 
of the sure import of prophecy. As by the instinctive 
tendencies of his moral nature he now anticipates a distant 
retribution, and as his whole conduct here will enter into that 
retribution, it is obvious that he can never know that he 
has realized the object of his hopes, or accomplished the 
end of his conduct, unless, in the retributive state, he 
remembers what he anticipated and for what he lived. As 
now by his belief in a retributive state he discovers him- 
self to be in a probationary state, so by the remembrance 
of his probationary state will he be able to explain his 
retributive state. In this life, the causes of endless results 
are at work; if once he forget the causes, the results will 
be inexplicable mysteries. If he would understand the 
^'far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" in hea- 
ven, he must remember the "light affliction" which he 
endured "but for a moment" on earth. If he would know 
why he is " glorified together with Christ" in heaven, he 
must remember how he " suffered with him" on earth. If 
he would know why the crown of glory is placed upon his 
head, he must remember the battles he fought, " the faith 
he kept," and " the course he finished." If he would 
know why Christ greets him on his entrance into heaven 
with, " Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the 
joy of thy Lord," he must remember his faithfulness over 
"a few things" on earth. If he would understand why he 
is arrayed "in white" in heaven, he must remember how 
his robes were " washed in the blood of the Lamb" on earth. 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 47 



If he would know why he is on the throne, he must remem- 
ber that he came from the foot of the Cross. If he would 
know why he is saved, he must remember when he 
believed and in whom he believed. If he would know 
why he loves God so much in heaven, he must remember 
how much God did for him on earth. If he would under- 
stand why he is clothed with a spiritual, immortal, incorrupt- 
ible, powerful, and glorious body, fashioned after Christ's 
glorious body, he must remember his material, mortal, 
corruptible, weak, and defective body, fashioned after an 
earthly model, in which he lived, and suffered, and died. 
If he would know why there is no ^^ sorrow, nor pain, nor 
death,'' in heaven, he must remember the land of graves 
from which he came, and the time when "all tears were 
wiped from his eyes, and sorrow and sighing fled away.'' 
If he would know why there is " no night" in heaven, he 
must remember the land which was illumined by the sun, 
and the skies which were adorned by the moon and the 
stars. If he would understand in heaven the solution of 
mysterious dispensations of his earthly state, he must re- 
member the dispensations themselves. If he would under- 
stand the nature of the harvest gathered into heaven, he 
must remember the seed that was sown on earth. If he 
would understand the confirmation of the truth of the " ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises" of the Bible, he must 
remember the promises themselves which consoled and sup- 
ported him on earth. If he would understand the full mean- 
ing and consummation of the great doctrines and truths of 
redemption revealed in the Bible, which can be known and 
effected only in heaven, he must remember those doctrines 
and truths as subjects of his faith on earth. From the 
gloom of earth into heaven flashed the light of faith and 
hope; from the glory of heaven into the gloom of earth 
flashes back the light of memory. Faith now explains a 



48 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



probationary state; memory then will furnish the materials 
for the explanation of the retributive state. The causes 
must be known before their results can be understood. To 
be made acquainted with the causes would be equivalent to 
the revival of memory, and hence there is no reason why 
memory should not continue in a future state. Without 
^ memory, the connection between probation and retribution 
will be lost, and then, unless this connection be restored, 
the retributive state will be an inexplicable mystery, a com- 
bination of the grandest results in the universe without any 
known or assignable causes : a conclusion in conflict with 
reason and the nature of things. And so we conclude that, 
memory gathering together all the knowledge of a pro- 
bationary state, the mind of the saint will concentrate it in 
the sublime explanation of the retributive state. 

We continue this argument a step further. The continu- 
ance of memory in a future state will be required, in order 
to explain the connection of Grod's work in redemption in 
time with his work of redemption in eternity. That such 
a connection exists none can rationally deny. Why men 
were saved could never be known without remembering 
why they were placed upon salvable ground. Why sin was 
forgiven could never be known without remembering that 
Christ was made an offering for sin. How God was "just, 
and yet the justifier of the ungodly,'' could never be known 
without remembering that Christ had "once suffered for 
sin." How a corrupt nature became holy could never be 
known without remembering that the Holy Spirit made 
it so in the new birth. How man became prepared to 
dwell in heaven could never be known without remember- 
ing what God had done in Christ Jesus for man on earth. 
Why Christ was the Judge at the last day (supposing it 
past) could never be kndwn without remembering why he 
died on the cross! The reasonableness and rectitude of the 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 49 



proceedings of the last day could never be known without 
remembering the nature of the moral government under 
which man was held subject in a probationary state. Tho 
vindication of the dignity of Grod, in relation to man as a 
sinner, could never be known in eternity without remember- 
ing the' exceeding sinfulness of sin and the infinite value 
of the sacrifice of Christ. The justice of the rewards of 
heaven and of the punishments of hell could never be 
known without remembering the relation of Christ's sacri- 
fice to sin and holiness. Without the remembrance of their 
former relation to the sacrifice of Christ, the righteous would 
enter upon the rewards, wondering why they are saved and 
the wicked lost; and so, without the remembrance of their 
former relation to the sacrifice of Christ, the wicked would 
enter upon the punishments of hell, wondering why they 
are lost and the righteous saved. 

Besides, it is generally supposed by the profoundest theo- 
logians that the sacrifice of the Son of G-od will exhibit in 
the strongest light possible God's hatred of sin and his 
regard for the dignity of his law, and so continue forever as 
the mightiest restraint upon probationers, — which cannot be 
unless the doctrine of it is to be remembered forever. In a 
word, the whole history of redemption after the end of time 
— which will be the sublimest part of the history of redemp- 
tion — cannot be understood without the remembrance of the 
history of redemption in time. - God's redemptive work in 
time and in eternity forms one grand whole ; and all must 
be remembered from the beginning, along the endless series, 
in order to see the glory of the progress. 

Is it possible to believe that God will efface from the 
minds of his saints and angels the remembrance of his 
stupendous expenditure on the work of redemption in time ? 
Is it possible to believe that the fall of man in Adam and the 
redemption of man by Christ Jesus will ever be forgotten 



60 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



by God's holy and intelligent universe ? Can lost angels 
ever forget their first estate ? Can Adam ever forget Para- 
dise, in which he was happy and from which he was expelled? 
Can he ever forget — can his posterity ever forget — the 
plan of redemption by the Son of God — a plan that provided 
for eternal deliverance from hell and eternal salvation in 
heaven ? No; for God is to be glorified as well by the re- 
membrance of the glorious past as by the knowledge of the 
glorious future; and so memory, in the endless succession 
of things, in the successive developments of the eternal and 
infinite Godhead, and in the inexhaustible evolutions of 
adoring minds of saints and angels, shall forever furnish 
them with a more splendid past, and so forever heighten 
his glory and their happiness. Cut off the connection of 
mind with the past, by the annihilation of memory, and you 
virtually annihilate the past, with all its greatness, grandeur, 
and import ; you rob God of his glory and man of his dig- 
nity and happiness. In a word, annihilate memory in the 
future state, and man loses the consciousness of his own 
identity, and is set about examining what he is, where he is, 
and what is his tendency — ignorant of himself, of God, 
and all His works. Admit the continuation of memory in 
the future state, and the connection of things is preserved, 
and, by consequence, the remembrance of our past existence, 
personal and relative, is perpetuated, which necessarily 
involves the recognition of our friends and relations in the 
future state. 

3. Recognition is essentially involved in the doctrine of 
the resurrection. 

Certain is it that the basis of recognition in the pre- 
sent state is contained in our mortal and defective physical 
organization, of which the body of Adam in his fallen state 
is the original model. And we argue that the basis of 
recognition in the future state will be contained in the resur- 



V 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 61 

rection body, of wbich the glorified body of Christ will be 
the original model. The bodies of all the posterity of 
Adam are fashioned after his fallen body, and in these 
we now recognise one another ; the bodies of all the saints 
in the resurrection will be fashioned after Christ's glorified 
body, and in these, we believe, we shall recognise one 
another. 

We do not assume that these original standards are essen- 
tially different in every particular, but that each has in it its 
own elements, on which recognition will proceed, and yet the 
resemblance between the two standards will be such that the 
latter may be properly called a resurrection of the former. 
The posterity of Adam now recognise one another, because 
they are all made after the same standard; and, though there 
are endless differences, they all so far resemble the original 
as to be recognised as proceeding from the same original ; 
and so the saints of Christ will recognise one another, be- 
cause they will all be fashioned after the same standard; and, 
though there may be endless differences in the resurrection, 
tbey will all so far resemble the divine original as to be re- 
cognised as fashioned after it. We now know one another 
as the children of Adam ; we shall tben know one another 
as the saints of Christ. But so much of the Adamic stand- 
ard will remain in the new body as to entitle it to the desig- 
nation of a resurrection, and render it possible for us to re- 
cognise it as descended from Adam; and so much of the 
standard, Christ's glorified body, will enter into the new 
body as to render it possible for us to recognise it as saved 
by, Christ. The resemblances to the bodies of the two 
Adams — the saved and the Saviour — will demonstrate the re- 
lation of the saints to both Adams, and the harmony of the 
two will form the resurrection body. Now we cannot draw 
the lines of difference and resemblance, and hence can form 
no conception of the harmony in the resurrection. We 



52 RECOGNTION IN HEAVEN. 



know DOW what constitutes our Adamic organization; we 
shall know in the resurrection what of this organization re- 
mains ; we shall know also what of the divine standard is 
superadded ; and hence it will not be difficult to make out 
the harmony of the whole in the resurrection body. Thus, 
in the resurrection we shall recognise the resemblances to 
the Adamic standard^ and consequently recognise our friends 
and relations. 

That the heavenly body will be conformable, in essential 
characteristics, to the Adamic model, is clearly deducible 
from two considerations. First, the heavenly body is ex- 
pressly called in the Scriptures a resurrection, and so must 
retain some of its original characteristics. Secondly, Christ 
" took the form of man,'^ both in his physical and mental 
nature, and so in bis " glorious'^ or glorified body he must 
retain some of the original essential Adamic characteristics. 
The likeness of these characteristics will enter into the 
structure of the bodies of the saints, and thus in the resem- 
blance to the divine model we must recognise some charac- 
teristics of the Adamic model ; these will be the basis of re- 
cognition in the future state. The very idea of a resurrec- 
tion, and the assumption of humanity by Christ, in which he 
was glorified, necessarily involve this conclusion. However 
Christ may have exalted humanity by his association with 
it and his glorification of it, the characteristics of humanity 
must continue perpetually inherent and cognizable in his 
body as the model of the bodies of the saints in the future 
state. The characteristics of humanity cannot be lost in the 
body of Christ on the throne. Doubtless the very scars, in 
his hands and feet and side will be conspicuous in him in 
his glorified state; for Thomas saw them, and thrust his 
hands into them, after his resurrection ; the three favorite 
apostles knew him enshrined in his shechinal transfiguration 
on Tabor ; and when he '^ cometh with clouds, every eye shall 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. ' 63 



see him, and they also which pierced him/' and he " shall 
be glorified io his saints/' 

But we proceed a step farther. Upon the ground that 
no resemblances to the Adamic standard will remain in the 
resurrection body, we argue nevertheless that conformity to 
an entire new standard will not render the recognition of our 
friends impossible, though in this case, it must be admitted, 
recognition, in the proper sense of the term, would be im- 
possible. No matter ', the knowledge will be equivalent to 
recognition. Our argument is this. That Christ's glorified 
body will be the standard of the bodies of the saints in the 
resurrection is expressly declared in the Scripture: ^' Who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned li'ke 
unto his glorious body :" Phil. iii. 21. It matters not, then, 
whether we recognise the bodies of the saints as conformable 
to the Adamic standard or not; knowing them as the saints 
of Christ, we shall know that they are redeemed from the 
earth. And it is reasonable to suppose that if in our inferior 
state we are able to recognise our friends upon the Adamic 
basis, we shall be able to know our friends enshrined in 
bodies conformable to the divine standard. " As is the 
earthy" — the Adamic — model, " such are they also that are 
earthy," — made in the likeness of the Adamic model : '' and 
as is the heavenly'' standard, ''such are they also that are 
heavenly," — that is, raised in the likeness of the heavenly 
model. Again : "as we have borne the image of the earthy" 
— the likeness of the Adamic — model, ''we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly," — that is, we shall be raised in the 
likeness of the heavenly model. 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49. And 
the argument is thus completed : " The first man Adam was 
made a living soul," and so stamped the material body with 
the impress of its own peculiarities: "the last Adam was 
made a quickening spirit," and so \n\\ enable the soul in the 

resurrection to stamp the spiritual body with the impress of 

5» 



64 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



its own characteristics; which involves recognition in the 
future state in a manner similar to the process of recognition 
in the present state. 

It is obvious that the body through which we hold rela- 
tion to the present world will not answer for the future 
state. For example : the sense of sight is dazzled by a 
glance at the sun ; how could we bear the effulgence of that 
world of which the glory of Grod and the Lamb is the 
light ? The sense of hearing is now sometimes overpow- 
ered by sudden and loud peals of thunder; how could we 
bear the rich anthem-peal of the million million united harps 
and voices of heaven ? John, in the island of Patmos, heard 
the ^' new song before the throne, sung by the hundred and 
■ forty-four thousand that were redeemed from the earth," 
like music o'er the water, mellowed by the distance; and yet 
it was to him like the peal of "great thunders" and the fall 
of " many waters." And again, he says he heard "all the 
angels shout.'' How could we, in our present body, in hea- 
ven^ear the united praises of all the hosts of glory, elevated 
to the utmost intensity of adoring love, gratitude, and joy ? 
In the present state, the body sinks under the " light afflic- 
tion which is but for a moment;" how could it endure the 
" far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The frail 
body of Saul of Tarsus was prostrated, and his sight sus- 
pended, for three days, by a flash of conviction superior to 
the brilliancy of a cloudless Asiatic sun ; three apostles were 
confounded on Tabor; Daniel "retained no strength" in the 
glorious vision by the river Hiddekel ; John " fell as dead'^ 
in the presence of the " First and the Last " in Patmos ; 
Paul, in his translation to Paradise, could not tell "whether 
he was in the body or out of the body;" and to endure the 
tremendous scenes of the judgment, at the downfall of the 
universe, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,'^ our 
bodies must all " be changed." How then, in our present 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 55 



bodies, could we exist in the immediate presence of God, or 
live in tliat world the splendor of which is absolutely above 
every description and all conception, in the present state ? 
There is necessity for an exalted and adequate body in the 
future state. 

The Apostle meets the difficulty in the following impres- 
sive antitheses and sublime climax. Referring to the body 
in both states, he says, "It is sown in corruption ; it is raised 
in incorruption : it is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory : 
it is sown in weakness j it is raised in power : it is sown a 
natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body — fashioned like 
unto the glorious body" of Christ, — exalted and sublimated 
into an incorruptible, glorious, strong, and spiritual essence, 
drawn out after the most exquisite workmanship of the di- 
vine skill, enamelled over with celestial glory, fashioned after 
the most perfect model in the universe, and endowed with 
every qualification demanded for the employments, offices, 
and privileges of the redeemed in the lapse of endless 
age's in heaven. ^ 

What this spiritual body will be it is utterly impossible to 
conceive. It may be more transparent than light or the most 
refined gas, more brilliant than the sun in his meridian 
strength, more rapid in its course than the velocity of lightning, 
stronger than the force of gravity that holds the great and 
vast material universe in unbroken harmony, more glorious 
and lovelier than any thing else in the universe except the 
body of Him "who is the fairest among ten thousand and 
altogether lovely;" approximating so nearly to the essence of 
spirit as to be properly called "spiritual," as almost to be 
transmuted into and identified with spirit; in its motions 
simultaneous with the volitions of the will, and in its ex 
pressions exactly in conformity with the most delicate 
emotions and sensibilities of the purified spirit, the exact ex- 
2)ression or representation of tlie spirit itself. 



56 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



Whatever may be the essence and form of the spiritual 
body, it will be under the entire control of the will, not only 
in all its motions, but in the expression of all the emotions 
and sensibilities of the heart. Indeed, we may confidently 
conclude, because of the superior essence of the spiritual 
body and the superior excellence of the heavenly state, the 
control of the will will be more complete than it is in the 
present state. And thus all the attitudes of the spiritual 
body, and all the expressions of the heart, will be in the 
most exact conformity to the individuality of the indwell- 
ing and glorified spirit. Enshrined in such an ethereal 
substance, consequently, in its own peculiar way the spirit 
will manifest itself. Who then can question our ability to 
radiate from the spiritual body such an expression of our- 
selves that we shall be immediately recognised by our 
friends around us? It is strongly inferrible that the most 
secret and delicate sensibilities of the soul, as within a 
transparent veil, will be seen more clearly and definitely 
than language, tone, voice, or gesture, could express on earth ; 
that the smile will have a sweetness, and the voice a tender- 
ness, and the eye a radiance, and the countenance an ex- 
pression, with which we could not endue our intercourse 
with our friends on earth; that the reciprocities of the soul 
will be holy, intimate, and exquisite, inconceivably above 
what they are now ; that the nicest shades of sensibility and 
character will be immediately and definitely perceived ; that, 
correspondingly, the exercises of the exalted intellect and 
of the invigorated memory will be so clear and rapid, that 
the whole history'' of mortal life will be revived with the 
distinctness of immediate perception, and that therefore, so 
far from being unable to recognise our friends in the future 
state, through the means of the spiritual body we shall re- 
cognise them with a clearness and a rapture utterly impossi- 
ble on earth. In a word, if the spiritual body be required 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 57 



to see God, the assemblage of all perfections, enthroned in 
uncreated glorj, and to know him, and to enjoj his imme- 
diate presence and the presence of holy angels, there is no 
reason conceivable why it shall not be the medium of seeing, 
and knowing, and loving, and enjoying the presence of our 
friends and relations also in heaven. 

But, it may be inquired, how aie we to distinguish the 
saints from one another, since they all will possess spiritual 
bodies? We reply, first, there is no reason to suppose that 
the bodies of the saints will be exactly alike, but every thing 
to the contrary. Secondly, we shall see, that endless variety 
is a law of so much of the universe of mind and matter as 
is known, and we may conclude that there will be no ex- 
ception to this law in the case of the bodies of the saints in 
heaven. Thirdly, as there are distinguishing features in 
the bodies of the saints on earth, there must be distinguish- 
ing features in the bodies of the saints in the resurrection^ 
or it could not be properly called a resv.rrectmn. Fourthly, 
among the saints, we believe, there will be diiferent degrees 
of intellect, different degrees in glory corresponding to differ- 
ent degrees of grace on earth, different degrees in sensibility^ 
and, consequently, differences in the spiritual bodies of the 
saints. Fifthly, the Bible expressly reveals that there will 
be differences in the bodies of the saints in the resurrection : 
''There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star differeth 
from another star in glory : so also is the resurrection of the 
dead." 1 Cor xv. 41, 42. Look on the expanse of night, 
spread out in the magnificence of variety, and you have the 
sublimest illustration of the differences in the bodies of the 
saints in the heaven of heavens. Sixthly, even though the 
bodies of the saints were exactly alike, the endless differ- 
ences in mental character would be manifested, as we have 
Been, through the medium of those bodies, each radiating 



58 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



the distinct Individuality of the indwelling spirit, as so many 
mirrors reflecting endless varieties of the same species. In 
any event, then, the saints — for example, Moses, Elijah, and 
David, Peter, John, and Paul — will be as much unlike in 
heaven as they were on earth. 

Finally, saints on earth, in their mortal bodies, shining 
with a heavenly glory, have been recognised by those who 
knew them. 

A degree of heavenly glory at least is imparted to every 
true believer in this life. Communion with the invisible 
and blessed Jesus transmits such a softened and sensible 
charm to his saints in this life, that the world exclaims, 
''They have been with Jesus. '^ The air around the rose- 
bush imbibes a rich perfume, and a delicious aroma lingers 
about him who has roved through Oriental groves of orange 
and lemon. The fabled stream of antiquity turned him 
who drank of it into the purest white; and another stream 
there was that flowed within flowery banks — 

"Where the leaves that fall 
'Neath the autumn sky, 
Grow gem -like all, 
And never die." 

Indeed, this is a law of spiritual life in this world. Even 
homely faces appear beautiful when they are radiant with 
spiritual joy, and those which are beautiful are thus some- 
times rendered intensely lovely. The effect of good health 
or sickness, success or misfortune, grief or joy, anger or love, 
hope or fear, innocence or guilt, sympathy or apathy, 
assurance or solicitude, resolution or irresolution, in the 
countenance, in the eye, in the tones of the voice, and in 
every feature of the face, is obvious to all. And so, differ- 
ent degrees of spiritual life are expressed in the countenances 
of Christians, and every degree is an approximation to the 
intensity of the expression of spiritual life in heaven. In 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 59 



the beginning of spiritual life, in the dawn of eternal light, 
we recognise our friends; and shall we not recognise them 
in the maturity of ihe life and the meridian of the light in 
heaven ? Is it possible to conceive how any intensity of 
holy joy can so animate the countenance of our friends in 
this life as that we shall be unable to recognise them ? On 
the supposition that the resurrection body will be substan- 
tially the same it is in this life, and that it will be so we 
hope we have proved, we cannot conceive how any degree 
of heavenly glory will render our friends incognizable to us. 
What we have just said refers to the ordinary effect of 
spiritual life upon the countenance. But we have examples 
of the extraordinary effect of spiritual life upon the counte- 
nance. Immediate communion with God on the legal 
mount imparted such an intensity of glory to the face of 
Moses, that "his skin shone," and he was compelled to wear 
"a veil when he talked with the rulers and people of 
Israel," for " they were afraid to come nigh him." And 
yet they all knew him. In the council at Jerusalem, by 
which Stephen was condemned to death, under the effect of 
the extraordinary "faith and power, wisdom and spirit," 
with which he defended Christianity, his "face shone as if 
it were an angel'sJ' And yet they all knew him. The 
same may be said of Christ in his transfiguration. And yet 
his disciples knew him. If then the heavenly appearance 
of our friends is but the perfection of their beauty, and this 
perfection beamed in^he faces of Moses and Stephen on 
earth without rendering recognition impossible to those who 
knew them, no reason can be assigned why we shall not recog- 
nise our friends in their spiritual bodies in heaven. The 
utmost intensity of heavenly glory cannot absorb their iden- 
tity. The blended glory of the natural world could not do it. 
John saw "a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with 
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head 



60 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



a crown of twelve stars/' and yet lie distinctly recognised a 
woman, though adorned with the commingled splendors of 
the sun, moon, and stars. What has been done on earth by 
man in his inferior state, in the case of Moses, Stephen, 
and Christ, can be done by man in his heavenly state; that 
is, if the saints, shining in heavenly glory, have been recog- 
nised by their friends on earth, they will be recognised by 
their friends in heaven. 

4. The proceedings of the judgment necessarily involve 
recognition. 

Every man is forming a character for eternity. This 
character will be determined, identified, and made manifest, 
at the judgment. No man can be confounded with another 
amid the million millions at the judgment. Every man, 
upon his own character, will stand or fall there. ^' God 
shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret 
thing, whether it be good, or whether it be bad," Eccl. xii. 
14; and every man must be there to answer for his works, 
public or private, good or bad. ^' For we shall all stand 
before the judgment seat of Christ," Rom. xiv. 10, ^'in 
the day when Grod shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus 
Christ," Rom. ii. 16; and every man must be in his place 
to answer for the conduct of his life, and the secrets of his 
heart. ^' Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with 
me, to give to every man according as his work shall be," 
Rev. xxii. 12; and in the examination, and dispensation of 
judgment, every man must appearWn his own individual 
character distinct from all the rest. ^' He that is unjust, 
let him be unjust still; and he that is holy, let him be holy 
still," Rev. xxii. 11 ; and the unjust must be distinguished 
from the holy in every individual case. ''But I say unto 
you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall 
give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy 
words thou shait be justified, and by thy words thou shalfc 



ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 61 



be condemned/' Matt. xii. 36, 37; and every man must 
appear to answer for every word he uttered in his probation- 
ary state. 

Every work, every word, every thought, every secret 
thing ! how is it possible to examine these, to understand 
the examination of these, without knowing at the same time 
those to whom they are chargeable? No man will answer 
for that which is not his work; no man can shun answering 
for that which is his work. We cannot witness the exami- 
nation without seeing and knowing him who is examined, — • 
without seeing and knowing him who is condemned or justi- 
fied in the examination, — without seeing and knowing him 
who is banished from God, or welcomed to the kingdom, — 
without seeing and knowing him on whom the curse is 
inflicted or the blessing is bestowed. What a scene would 
be presented at the judgment, if the crimes of a Caligula or 
a Hildebrand should be examined, and those monsters in 
iniquity themselves did not appear in their distinct individu- 
ality to answer to them ! or the lives of Paul and Wesley be 
examined, and these champions for the truth be indistin- 
guishable among the glittering millions on the right hand ! 
How much occurs in this life of which we can hope to 
obtain no account till the judgment! How many deeds of 
darkness and death are performed whose perpetrators are 
never detected in this life, and whose cases we instinctively 
refer to the all-searching examination of the final judgment, 
where we anticipate their full exposure and just condemna- 
tion I How many plans and plots and intrigues are worked 
out in society, whose agents lie concealed, and can be known 
to but few till the last day ! How much injustice is pub- 
licly and privately inflicted, for which there can be no re- 
dress till God undertake the cases in the judgment! For 
a thousand ages, God has been despised and his rights 
openly and secretly violated by his enemies; shall he not 



62 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



vindicate himself in the light of impartial and inflexible 
justice, in the presence of an assembled universe? 

The law of God is infinitely elevated above the " heavens 
and the earth;" and sooner shall a thousand vsrorlds, with 
all their inhabitants, be annihilated, than " one jot or tittle" 
of that law remain unfulfilled. Every sin is an invasion of 
the inviolable majesty of God, an attack on the divine 
harmony and happiness of the universe, a contempt and 
abuse of that sacrifice which is above, and yet for, the law 
which otherwise would have inflicted utter ruin on man, a 
virtual declaration of absolute independence of God, and a 
bold defiance of his holiness, justice, and power. And 
what man has not committed ofi"ences of this sort, indefinite 
in number, surpassingly great in turpitude, and frightful 
oppositions of the soul and the body to the government and 
laws of God ? 

Hence, however men may hope to escape detection for 
their crimes in this life, there is no man who hopes to elude 
the omniscience of God in the judgment; there is no such 
prompting in human nature ; and it is this certainty of de- 
tection, exposure, and just retribution, at the judgment, that 
invests the judgment with a terrific glory to the guilty in 
this life. If any man doubts whether he will know any 
one else at the judgment, he never doubts whether he will 
be known. Every man feels instinctively that at the judg- 
ment every eye in the universe will be upon him ; he carries 
within him the sure and certain pledge that this- will be so: 
that he will be enveloped in an atmosphere of intensest light, 
and stand forth before the throne of justice in his own entire 
self, and be seen through and through by every intelligence 
in the vast witnessing assembly. Justice requires recog- 
nition at the judgment, conscience guarantees it, and every 
man's indestructible personal identity insures it. 

The truth of God requires it. How can we know that 



ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 63 



the statement of the Bible, '' We must all appear before the 
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the 
things done in his body according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad," and other similar statements, 
are true, unless they be verified by the actual appearance 
of every man before the judgment-seat of Christ? If a 
single '^ one" of mankind should not appear to '^receive 
the things done in his body," or if a single act or word or 
secret thought of a single individual should not be ex- 
amined, the universe would not only cry out, '' Injustice," 
but the Bible be proved to be false. No man can conceal 
or absent himself then : the heavens will retire, and the ele- 
ments melt, to make way for the august gathering of the 
entire race of man and the demonstration of the truth of 
the Bible. We must hnow that every man is there, what 
every man has done and said and thought, and what every 
man has received for what he has done and said and thought, 
before we can hnow that God is just and true; and it is in- 
conceivable how we can know all this without recognising 
all our friends and relations, each in his place, and each in 
his individual character, distinct from all the rest. 

What we now helieve will be true we must then know to 
be true. We believe our friends will be there; but how 
shall we know that they are there, unless we shall know them 
there? how will they know that we are there, unless they 
shall know us there? Wicked men may wish to be un- 
known there, but God's truth cannot allow this; and good 
men cannot be unknowu there, for God's truth requires that 
they be known. No man can be ignorant of himself there, 
for the truth of God reveals him to himself as he is ; and 
who he is, and what he is, the same truth will reveal to 
every one else. The ministers of the gospel must indivi- 
dually appear to give account of their preaching, and their 
flocks must appear to give account of the manner in which 






64 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



they heard. Can we imagine that men will have been so 
utterly changed by the resurrection as that they shall be 
strangers to ns with whom they held intimate intercourse in 
this life? If so, then the judgment will be no vindication 
of the truth of God to us, for how could we then know that 
our friends are in a multitude of unknown individuals ? It 
is incontestible that we must have such a knowledge of our 
friends there as we have of them here, in order to know that 
they are there, and so see the truth of Grod conj&rmed and 
established forever. The nature of the final judgment, 
then, necessarily requires the recognition of our friends and 
relations. 

The language of the Judge at the Judgment also clearly 
implies recognition. ^' Then shall the King answer and say 
unto them : Verily I say unto you, even as ye have done 
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me." This is said in reply to the ^'righteous'' who 
inquired, " Lord, when saw we thee an-hungered, and fed 
thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ?" &c. What ! Thee, 
on the throne, arrayed in the robes of divinity, with the uni- 
verse assembled before thee, before whom heaven and earth 
flee away, on whose sentence is suspended the irrevocable 
destiny of all men, whose is the wealth and glory of ail 
things, who art the Beginning and the End, the First and 
the Last, — Thee hungry, and thirsty, and a stranger, and 
naked, and sick, and in prison: — when? Truly, some ex- 
planation is required, especially when the inheritance of the 
eternal kingdom is made to turn on the conduct of the 
righteous. And the explanation is given. By a divine 
^sympathy, Christ regards the conduct of the righteous 
toward his people as having been extended to Him; and 
if this principle be allowed, — if such is the import of Chris- 
tian benevolence, — if the Judge himself shared in the kind- 
nesses extended to his people, — if, by this sort of transfer, 



ARGUMENTS. FROM REASON. 65 



bread placed in the empty hand of the hungry was placed 
in the hand of Christ, and water given to the thirsty was 
given to Christ, and in the reception of the stranger Christ 
was entertained, and in clothing the naked Christ was 
clothed, and in nursing the sick Christ was nursed, and 
in visiting the prisoner Christ was visited, — why, then, all is 
plain enough. For then the conduct of the righteous is 
extended to Christ himself; and as this conduct was per- 
formed by the grace of Christ, the reason is sufficiently 
plain why the righteous are called "blessed children/' and 
why "the kingdom" is bestowed upon them. 

But a difficulty remains. Direct reference is made to 
those who, in his stead, had been the subjects of Christian 
benevolence. " These my brethren." Who are these ? Now, 
how is it possible for the righteous to see the propriety of this 
reference, unless they shall recognise on the solemn occa- 
sion the identical persons who had been the subjects of their 
kindness ? Christian benevolence is made to shine out with 
transcendent lustre on the day of judgment; but the great 
subject will be involved in impenetrable mystery, if the 
righteous shall have no remembrance of their conduct, or if 
the subjects of that conduct shall be indistinguishable amid 
the countless millions assembled. Well might the righteous, 
if this were so, make a second inquiry: "Lord, wlio are 
these thy brethren V But nothing of the sort is intimated ; 
and the conclusion is plain, that they recognise in the 
" brethren" of Christ the subjects of their benevolence and 
charities. The righteous rejoice in the grateful remembrance 
of their deeds, and in the recognition and greeting of their 
exalted and glorilBed brethren, who once were poor, obscure, 
and neglected by the world. Their exaltation and glory 
will no more prevent recognition, than the divine splendor.? 
of the Judge himself will prevent " those that pierced him" 

from recognising in him the same they mocked with the 

6«- 



66 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



reed and purple robe, and crucified in the seamless garment 
and crown of thorns. The same conclusion is derived from 
a consideration of the case of the '' wicked" on the left hand. 

5. The nature of heaven involves the holiest and most 
intimate intercourse; and this intercourse involves mutual 
knowledge; and mutual knowledge involves recognition. 

Man was made for society, for he is social; and society is 
founded in manifold and interlacing correlative affections 
and obligations, the controlling law of which is pure evan- 
gelical love. Evangelical love does not destroy correlative 
affections, but purifies and exalts them to perfection. It is 
a new affection, that not only embraces in its range the pecu- 
liar circles of home, friendship, and acquaintance, but every 
member of the household of faith and family of Grod on 
earth and in heaven. We shall consider it as the common 
bond of union of the whole family of God. 

The social nature of the kingdom founded by Christ may 
be briefly demonstrated. Christ, the founder, is the Head 
of it ; his people are the members of it : He is the Vine ; 
they are the branches. The same Spirit, the Spirit of holi- 
ness and love, is the Life of it. The same great doctrines 
govern it. Its union is indicated in its sacraments. The 
same obligation is imposed upon all — obedience ; and the 
same end is proposed to all — eternal life. And to accom- 
plish and perpetuate this unity, the same affection, holy love, 
is breathed into every member of the kingdom ; and this 
affection is eternal, because ^^God,'' its source, ^'is love,'' 
and God is eternal. " Beloved, let us love one another: for 
love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, 
and knoweth God." This love is a divine principle that 
attracts and binds together all holy beings in the universe 
like God, and is the opposite of the principle of enmity 
which, if unrestrained, would convulse and dismember the 
entire moral universe. And hence we may conclude, when 



ARGUMENTS FROM REASON. 67 



this principle of enmity, which is the source of error, preju- 
dice, division, and all selfishness, shall be wholly destroyed, 
and the principle of divine love shall be exalted to complete 
and universal dominion, all under its control will be brought 
into the holiest and most intimate communion. There will be 
no divisions in heaven. Controversialists will walk arm-in-arm 
along the streets of the new Jerusalem; they will sing the 
same song in heaven ; and they who wrangled about forms 
and trembled for their own arks on earth will unite in the 
harmonious worship before the throne. There can be no oc- 
casion of difference in heaven, for God is "all in all" there, 
and hence in him all in heaven must be united together; for 
no one can find any thing out of God as a basis for new ideas, 
new plans, new parties, new pursuits, and independent ends. 
To extricate man from the obstructions to holy and intimate 
intercourse on earth is the design of the plan of redemption; 
and in heaven, where these obstructions do not and cannot 
exist, this intercourse will be complete and perpetual. 

But this fellowship is begun on earth ; and here we know 
and love one another, because we are guided by the same 
light and governed by the same love. The very idea of 
taking " sweet counsel together'^ implies this. And so it is 
said, "If we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have 
fellowship one with another f and " See how these Chris- 
tians love!" is the wondering remark of men of the world. 
But this fellowship is perfected in heaven. But can this be 
done if the saints do not know one another ? It were im- 
possible. We hesitate not to say it were impossible. Mu- 
tual ignorance in heaven would be an abrogation of man's 
mental constitution, a frustration of the plan of redemption, 
a refutation of the plain statements of the Bible respecting 
heaven, and an abnegation of heaven itself. We shall not 
stop to prove these conclusions from such an assumption, 
but reject the assumption, because it contains in it such 



68 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



manifestly absurd conclusions. Arguing from the nature of 
Christian fellowship amid all its embarrassments and imper- 
fections on earth, and from the nature and facilities of the 
heavenly fellowship, we conclude that the saints in heaven 
will have a more intimate knowledge of one another than it 
is possible to attain on earth. What would earth be with- 
out mutual intimate fellowship ? and what must heaven be, 
where this fellowship is carried to the highest perfection, and 
embraces the whole family of God ? 

One step more remains. Mutual knowledge involves recog- 
nition. The argument is brief. As mutual knowledge and 
love are necessary to the fellowship of the saints in heaven, 
friends and relations in heaven must know one another as 
saints, Sit least each in his own personal identity or individu- 
ality. But this cannot be done without recognising in the 
saint my friend or relation^ for it is my friend or relation who 
is exalted to a saint. I cannot know the saints without know- 
ing wlio they are ) and I cannot know who my sainted friend 
or relation «s, without recognising in the saint my friend or 
relation, whatever may be his exaltation and perfection. If 
any thing be wanting to establish this conclusion, it is the 
perpetuation of our individuality and memory in heaven, and 
this, we have seen, will be the case. 

It may be replied, that the personal identity of my friend 
will be lost in the character of the saint. Not at all; for 
a holy nature did not destroy the personal identity of my 
friend on earth. For example : I know my father as a father 
and as a Christian ; and so I shall know him as a father 
and a saint in heaven : in his relation to me, a father; in 
his relation to God, a saint. 

We proceed to the argument from me plain Scriptures. 



CHAPTER III. 

* 

ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 

I. The hope of recognition is impressively set forth in the 
Old Testament. 

1. '^ Gathered unto his people," a phrase often used, indi- 
cates recognition in the future state. 

" Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good 
old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to 
Ms peojple," Gen. xxv. 8. This cannot mean that his body 
was deposited by the side of his forefathers, for ''his sons 
Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah'' in 
Canaan, while some of bis forefathers lived and died in Ur 
of the Chaldees, whence he was called ; and Terah, his father, 
died in Ilavan. It cannot mean merely that he was num- 
bered with the dead, for then the expression would not have 
been " gathered to Ms people," for others had died besides 
his people : death is the lot of all men. Besides, the fact 
of death is expressed in the terms, he ''(/aye -z^p the ghost 
and died." That it cannot refer to death and burial at all 
is evident from the single consideration that he "was ga- 
thered to his people" before he was buried. The true 
meaning then is that the soul of Abraham was transferred 
to the company of his forefathers and of his own Sarah, 
already in the land of spirits. 

The same is said of Isaac ; that he "gave up the ghost and 
died, and was gathered unto Ms people." And the same is 
said of Jacob, who was not buried till forty days after his 
death. And the same is said of Moses and Aaron: "Get 
thee up and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and 
be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in 



70 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people ;" and yet 
Moses " was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, over 
against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre 
unto this day." 

^'Gathered unto his people!" — his people still living, 
thinking, loving, and remembering. ^'I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living :" Matt. 
xxii. 32. This is plain. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, 
Aaron, and all the rest of the Old Testament saints, have 
been gathered together in the same place, and that place is 
— "heaveji;" for many shall come from the east and the 
west — from every quarter of the world — and shall sit down 
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven :'* 
Matt. viii. 11. This is the city which hath foundations, 
whose builder and maker is God," — " the better country, 
that is, an heavenly" — to which they " looked" while they 
were "pilgrims and strangers on earth :" Heb. xi. 10, 13, 16. 
Here they meet again. And can they meet without know- 
ing one another ? Did not Abraham know his own people, 
and his own Sarah among them ? What glory could con- 
ceal her from him ? She was in heaven — that he knew; could 
he be content till he found her ? The gospel nowhere re- 
quires such resignation as that, because the justice of God is 
not violated in the blissful reunion and mutual recognition of 
the holy in heaven ; and the happiness of heaven is not im- 
paired, but heightened, by such reunion and recognition. 
Thank God, all of the heart's precious treasures that is worth 
the preserving is taken up and perpetuated in the bliss of 
heaven ! If it were not so, then we must be bereaved of 
our pious dead forever, and to be "gathered unto his people" 
had nothmg peculiar in it to Abraham — though Sarah was 
in heaven ; nor to Isaac — though both Abraham and Sarah 
were there ; and so of Jacob and the rest of the patriarchal 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 71 



saints! This is gloomy indeed! But it cannot be so. ^'His 
people/' — Jiis ! — there is a bond of souls implied in this word 
that death cannot sever; an affection that death cannot chill ; 
a remembrance that death cannot destroy; a reunion that 
death cannot prevent; a claim to recognition that neither 
death nor heaven can invalidate. In a word, there is a sense 
in which our sainted friends shall be ours, and it is incon- 
ceivable upon what other basis, or in what other sense, they 
can be ours, except upon the basis of a common and perfected 
humanity, — that is, as known and loved by us, and as knoio- 
imj and loving us, in the blissful and perpetual intercourse 
and reciprocity of heaven. In no other sense can they be 
ours in heaven : and this necessarily implies recognition. 

2. The case of David. " While the child was yet alive, I 
fasted and wept ; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be 
gracious to me, that the child may live ? But now he is dead, 
wherefore should I fast ? Can I bring him back to me ? I shall 
go to him, but he shall not return to me :" 2 Sam. xii. 22, 23. 

The child of David was sick. He fasted and prayed that 
he might live. But intelligence is brought him that his 
child is dead. "Then he arose from the earth, and washed 
and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came 
into the house of the Lord, and worshipped : then he came 
to his own house ; and when he required they set bread be- 
fore him, and he did eat." What was it that consoled David ? 
That he should go to his child, wherever he might be, and 
that he should recognise him, whatever change might have 
passed upon him. There is no way for him to come back 
to me ; I must follow him ; the way is open for me to go to 
him. Immortality cannot return to mortality; I cannot see 
him again till I cease to be mortal. 

"I shall go to him" cannot refer to death, for his child 
was not yet committed to the grave. It cannot refer to the 
grave or the splendid mausoleum, for communion there is 



72 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



the communion of the dead, cold as the clods of the valley 
under which they repose. He did not wish to clasp his pale 
and passionless babe to his cold and pulseless bosom. It is 
a pure pleasure to anticipate while living to sleep in death 
by our sainted dead ; but this were not enough to console us 
in bereavement. David's grief was subdued by a richer 
hope. As he did not expect his child to come back to him, 
he expected to go to his child, which would answer as well. 
As he did not expect his child to come back to him, he 
expected to find his child the same he would be should he 
return to him. As he did not expect his child to come back 
to him, he expected to go to his child for the meeting. The 
child did not cease to be his child, though in heaven j nor 
he cease to be a father, remaining on earth. What father 
ever felt the tie that binds him to his child severed at death ? 
that then he ceased to be a father ? that then his love for his 
child was obliterated from his social nature ? Ah ! what 
parent, however tenderly he may have loved his child before 
death, has not, on his death, loved him with a tenderer love^ 
and longed to follow him after long years of desolation have 
elapsed since he laid him in the grave ? And may we not 
rationally conclude that the correlative affection continues 
and is heightened in the child in heaven ? May we not argue 
this from our own cherished and enhanced affection for our 
sainted children ? Can we suppose that they have forgotten 
us, and care not for us, while we remember them and hope 
to meet them again ? Or that, when we pass from earth, we 
shall not care to meet them, though the hope to meet them 
consoled us in their death, and cheered us in the separation ? 
Every relative that has gone to the grave glancing upward 
lias brightened its gloom, and tinged the sunset of our mor- 
tal life with a golden dawn. But this were a delusion, if 
social love be confined to this life ; and then so far as social 
life is concerned, earth is preferable to heaven, and the gos- 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 73 



pel has no real solace for bereavement ! So far from this, 
the advantages are all on the side of heaven ; for it is believed, 
from the example of David, that heaven is the place of re- 
storation to our friends. And so it is. 

Oh, could our children return to earth, they would visit 
their old homes again. Over the thousand cities of earth 
they would direct their course straight to the very house 
where their parents live, and over mountains and forests 
they would find their way to the peaceful vale in which they 
were born. Again would they sport in the shade of the old 
trees in the yard or on the hill-side, and reanimate their 
former homes with their merriment and love. Nowhere 
else on earth would they be content to stay. But we would 
not have them back, because then must come the bitter- 
ness of parting again ; and because, as it is, we expect to go 
to them, and they await our arrival in a better world. If 
we knew as much of that better world as they do, and how 
happy they are there, and how much they expect us to come, 
we would be more resigned than we are in their absence, 
and be more anxious to depart and be with them than we 
are. And when we are dying they will know that we are 
coming, as certainly as when they were dying we knew 
they were going; and our mutual joy in the meeting will be 
greater than our grief was in the parting. They must have 
left us with reluctance, if in death they knew they never 
should meet and know us again ; and what now would be our 
desolation if this were our belief ! 

But we go to them. We shall find them among the 
saints and angels in the eternal city ; and it is not too much 
to say that they will momentarily forget all heaven on our 
arrival. We may find them nearest Jesus — may be, clasped 
in his blessed arms — and they will give us a look of seraphic 
sweetness and welcome, and, it may be, stretch out their 
arms to greet us, and come to us. We shall find them in 



74 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



heaven. It may be, they are already the tenants of our 
mansions there, the first to have entered them and surveyed 
all their beauty and glory, and are engaged in arranging and 
preparing them with the jewels and flowers and odors of 
immortality for our reception ; and the very first things that 
strike our attention on our entrance, it may be, will be 
an order and selections from all heaven which they knew 
would please us best, and which will make us feel that 
we are quite at home. And such a home ! Mansions in 
heaven ! It cannot be that we shall occupy them alone ! 
The very idea implies solitude ; and if we are to have any 
other company besides that of Jesus, what more desirable 
than that of the family circle of earth ? In and around our 
homes on earth how often have we heard the tender notes 
of opening song from the pure and guileless bosoms of our 
children, and with what pleasure have we joined them ! 
And, it may be, our mansions in heaven have already echoed 
with the melody of their celestial harps and voices. They 
may have prepared the very songs which they intend to sing 
first on our arrival, sweeter to us than the strains of the 
cherubim, because our children sing them, — expressive not 
only of rapturous gratitude to the Redeemer for our eternal 
redemption, but of their rapturous joy in meeting us again. 
Had they lived, we would have told them a great deal about 
the world they never knew ; and they will tell us much of 
heaven on our arrival and in the first blessed interviews. 
Oh, we never could love them all we wished to love them ; 
tliey stayed with us so short a time ! We must have a hea- 
ven — there must be a heaven — and a mansion in it; and 
our children shall be with us forever. It is enough. 

It is enough. If we ever ascend to heaven, we shall find 
them there. We knew them in life and in death, and 
would know them if they should come back from their 
graves or we should go to them in heaven. We would dis- 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 75 



tinguisli them from all the rest of the lovely little children 
in heaven, and they would distinguish us from all the rest 
of the parents that come to that happy country. That they 
are there we know; and when we are there, shall we not 
know them ? What ! parents and children in heaven, and 
not know one another? How can this be ? It cannot be. 

It is enough. Their bodies are asleep in Jesus. They 
will awake again. Asleep! go look on your children 
asleep on their beds at night. Will you not know them in 
the morning, when they arise and run smiling to greet 
you ? You will ; and so you will know them in the general 
resurrection. 

II. The doctrine of recognition plainly taught in the New 
Testament. 

1. The case of the Bethany family. In the preceding 
case, we have an example of a father expecting to meet and 
know his child, which is a representation of parental rela- 
tion and expectation. In the case now to be considered, 
we have an example of a sister expecting to meet and know 
her brother, which is a representation of filial relation and 
expectation. In both cases, future recognition is plainly 
implied. 

The Bethany family was composed of Lazarus and his 
two sisters, Martha and Mary. Lazarus dies. Jesus is on 
his way to raise him from the dead. Martha meets him 
and says, '' Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had 
not died.'' Jesus replies, ''Thy brother shall rise again." 
And Martha answers, " I know that he shall rise again in 
the resurrection at the last day :" John xi. 20-24. Oh, what 
an interview was this ! How much Martha loves her 
brother ! how great her grief because he is dead, and sepa- 
rated from her, and lies sleeping in the sepulchre ! They 
had done all they could, and yet he grew worse; they had 
finally sent a touching and imploring message to Jesus : 



76 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



^' He whom thou lovest is sick.'' Plow often, to the last 
breath of their dying brother, did they look from their 
cottage-window to see if Jesus was coming ! and how often 
did they mistake the knock at the door for his, hoping yet 
he would come in time to save him ! And after he was 
dead, doubtless they still hoped he would come, and restore 
him to life, as he had done the daughter of Jairus. Watch- 
ers in the death-chamber, they looked and listened and held 
their breath in intense expectancy of Christ's arrival. And 
when they were on the way to the burial, it may be, still 
they hoped Jesus would meet them, and raise their brother 
from the coffin, as he had done the son of the lonely widow 
of Nain. And on their way back home from the sepulchre, 
it may be, they expected still to see Jesus, or at least to hear 
tidings of him in answer to their message. But not a word ; 
for " four days," not a word from him ! How desolate now 
the home of the sisters ! Alas ! what is home or life to 
them without their brother? Day by day they had visited 
and wept at the sepulchre, wondering why they had heard 
nothing from Jesus, and probably had relinquished the last 
hope of his coming, and " many" of their friends had come 
''to comfort them concerning their brother," when it is 
whispered, " Jesus is coming," and Martha hastens out of 
the town to meet him. Her grief is soon expressed. 
'^Lord, hadst thou been here, my brother had not died." 
Relief is as soon bestowed. " Thy brother shall rise 
again," &c. 

Let us listen to every word, and learn all we can. '^Thy 
hrother shall rise again." '' I know that he shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last dayf^ that I shall see him and 
know him tlien; that he will not vanish amid the glittering 
millions of the redeemed. This consoles me now, and without 
this I would be inconsolable. But may I not see him before 
then ? for '' I know that, even now^ whatsoever thou shalt 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 77 



ask of God, God will give it thee." "What do you mean, 
Martha ? — that I can restore him to you now ? Yes, for thou 
art " the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in 
thee, though he were dead, yet shall he Hje.'! The blessed 
restoration soon follows. /''f^,iK^\^'''^t't^'J^'^.''^\^. 

Martha believed she would meet and know her brother 
in the resurrection at the last day, though she believed also 
that it was possible, if he chose to do so, Christ could restore 
him to her before then. In either case, she believed in the 
doctrine of recognition. This is the consolation the gospel 
afforded her, and affords all in pious bereavement. She 
had, it is true, the advantage of an early reunion with her 
brother, but then the separation must soon be repeated, and 
again she must repose, as we do, in the hope of the general 
resurrection. She had no solicitude about the salvation of 
her deceased brother, for she knew that Jesus "loved" him, 
and heard him say, "whosoever believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live again." Hers was the grief of 
separation, and this grief was soothed by the hope of re- 
union and recognition. In whatever difficulties the doctrine 
of recognition was involved to her mind, if any existed, they 
are not even mentioned : her fond and loving heart soars 
above them all ; and we may soar as high and as serenely as 
she did. It may be, that Christ, in his frequent and blessed 
social intercourse with the Bethany family at their quiet 
home, had already explained away every difficulty, answered 
every objection, and settled the question of recognition upon 
the most solid and satisfactory ground ] and now Martha's 
faith, amounting to a calm conviction, "I know," is un- 
equivocally avowed. And let it be taken for granted, with- 
out any misgiving or doubt, that, if any objections or diffi- 
culties on the subject exist in our minds which we may 
suppose did not exist in Martha's mind, they can never be 

valid against the doctrine which was taught by Jesus and 

7* 



78 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



believed by Martha. It would have been useless for Christ 
to anticipate and refute the almost endless objections of 
weak and fallible man to any doctrine of the Bible. Any 
truth or doctrine of the Bible being once established, it 
stands good against every opposing theory, and every objec- 
tion, to the end of time. 

Why should Christ say to Martha, " Thy brother shall 
rise again," if he did not intend to comfort her with the 
hope of reunion and recognition? If in the general resur- 
rection we shall not know our friends, why did not Christ 
correct Martha's belief by saying, " You will not know him 
then" ? Does not the announcement of Christ that he is 
^' the resurrection and the life" include in it the very basis 
of the resurrection, reunion, and recognition of all his 
saints? '^ Shall rise again," '^ shall live," '-shall never 
die," are incomprehensible terms in the connection, if the 
doctrine of recognition l>e not contained in the atonement 
and teachings of Christ. 

Besides, as Lazarus after he had been dead four days was 
restored to life, and recognised, in order that man might 
" see the glory of Grod," (v. 40,) so in the general resurrec- 
tion he must be as clearly recognised, in order to show forth 
the same glory in the highest and most impressive manner. 
Otherwise, in vain might the sisters look for the proof of 
the glory of God in their brother's resurrection, in vain 
might men look at all for the proof of the glory of God in 
the general resurrection. Every man, it is true, might 
have in himself the proof of his own resurrection ; but with- 
out the recognition of others, he could only believe, not 
know, that any one else had arisen from the dead. ^' He 
shall rise again," therefore, not only is the guarantee of a 
general resurrection, and a pledge of the divine power and 
faithfulness, but a consolatory promise of future recognition. 

2. The case of the rich man and Lazarus. Some have 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 79 



supposed this to be a parable, others a real history. But 
no matter: if a parable, it is what mnay take place ; if a real 
history, it is what Aas taken place. We incline to the 
latter. In the cases of David and the Bethany family, 
helief m the doctrine of recognition is expressed; in the 
case before us, the fact of recognition is graphically 
described. Christ himself draws aside the curtain that con- 
ceals the eternal world, and reveals the scene. 

The fact is clearly stated, that the rich man ^^ saw Laza- 
rus in Abraham's bosom. '^ This were enough to establish 
the doctrine of future recognition. But there are circum- 
stances connected with this fact that render the argument 
still stronger. In the first place. Dives recognised Lazarus 
in a different state from that in which he was. "Would he 
not have recognised him had he been with him in the same 
state ? Secondly, he recognised Lazarus " afar off," across 
'^ a great gulf.'' Would he not have recognised him had 
he been at his side on the other side of the gulf? Thirdly, 
he recognised Lazarus, though he had laid aside his '^rags" 
and his ^'sores'' were healed; and he was recognised, 
though he had laid aside his " purple and fine linen." The 
absence of the external circumstances of this life, therefore, 
cannot render recognition impossible in the future state. 
Fourthly, he recognised Lazarus, though he was ^^com- 
forted;" and he was recognised, though he was " tormented." 
Neither happiness nor misery, therefore, can prevent recog- 
nition in the future state. Fifthly, he recognised Lazarus, 
though a spirit out of the body, in the separate state; and 
so he was recognised : and in such a case, recognition seems 
to be more difficult than it would have been in the body. 
Sixthly, he recognised Lazarus, though in a state of glory j 
and he was recognised, though in a state of deepest degra* 
dation. Would he not therefore have recognised Lazarus 
had he also been in a state of glory? Seventhly, he re- 



80 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



merabered his " five brethren/' Would he not have recog- 
nised them also had they also been with Lazarus and Abra- 
ham ? and especially if he had been in the same state with 
them and Lazarus and Abraham ? In a word, if in dififer- 
ent states, afar off, across a great gulf, out of the body, a 
saint who was once a beggar, and a lost soul who was once 
a rich man, recognised each other; would they not have 
recognised each other had they both been saints, side by 
side, and in the same blessed state ? 

But the argument may be rendered still stronger by the 
fact that Abraham and Dives, who had not known each 
other, knew each other; and then the conclusion is incon- 
testible, that we shall recognise those whom we have known. 
But the consideration of this fact we reserve for another 
and more appropriate part of this treatise. 

3. "I say unto you, that many shall come from the east 
and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven :'' Matt. viii. 11. In 
the parallel passage we have, " There shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, 
and you thrust out :" Luke xiii. 28. 

First, the most intimate communion with the most emi- 
nent saints of God is expressed, and consequently a mutual 
knowledge is implied. The original word anakNthesontaiy 
translated ''sit down," intimates the Eastern custom of re- 
ceiving meals in a recumbent posture. Secondly, the very 
names of these eminent saints are mentioned, and conse- 
quently they will be known as their names indicate. 
Thirdly, some of these saints are specified as " prophets," 
and consequently they will be known as prophets, that is, 
as Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, &c. Fourthly, it is expressly 
stated that those who are thrust out '' shall see Abraham," 
&c. What is this but to hnoio Abraham, &c. ? Fifthl}', 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 81 



the saints, from every quarter of the world and period of 
time, shall ^^sit down in the kingdom of God'' with these 
eminent saints, and of course they also will be known in 
the happy company. How these several particulars can be 
true without recognition it is impossible to conceive. Here 
is a specification oi place y character^ persons, names, oxtual 
seeing, and intimate intercourse. What more is wanting to 
make out a case of recognition, or prave that the. doctrine is 
contained in the Bible ? 

4. '^For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then 
face to face: now I know in part; but thea shall I hnow 
even as also I am known :'' 1 Oor. xiii. 12. There is a deptb 
of meaning in this passage which eterr>ity alone can fathom. 
We can better understand its import by considering other 
Scriptures in connection with it than by indulging in anj 
speculations. 

Spirits in eternity know more of each other and of us than 
we know of them. This is true of angels, for they have 
taken a great part in instrtscting man in the great things of 
redemption, as the Bible in many places most clearly reveals. 
Much, but not all, of what they revealed we already know, 
and the rest we shall know as they know it. They are now 
our " ministering spirits,'^ and they know us better than we 
know them ; for we are visible to them, they are invisible to 
us ; they are near us, and we know them not : but we shall 
know them as they know us. The angels knew Lazarus io 
his poverty, and misery, and neglect; they knew him in 
death, and they knew him in glory ; and he knew them in 
glory, and others knew him, and he knew them as they 
knew him. 

Saints in the separate state " know as they are known.'* 
Abraham, Lazarus, and Dives, were intimately acquainted 
with each other; indeed, they seem to be equally acquainted 
with each other; though Dives was ignorant of some things 



82 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



at least, — namely, the impassable gulf, and that Abraham 
had no authority to afford him the least relief or to send any 
messages to the world he had left. ''One of the elders," 
in the Apocalypse, knew John, and asked him, "What are 
these which are arrayed in white ? and whence came they ?" 
And John replied, "Sir, thou knowest;'^ and the elder in- 
formed him, " These are they which came up out of great 
tribulation, '^ &e. : Rev. vii. 13, 17. The elder, an exalted saint, 
knew them ; but once he did not know them any better than 
John did. He informed John who they were and whence 
they came. Had John known the change that had passed 
upon the elder, or had he possessed the means of informa- 
tion the elder had, he would have known them as well as 
the elder did, and he would have known the elder also as 
well as the elder knew him. 

There are many reasons doubtless why angels and spirits 
in the separate state know us better than we know them ; 
three things at least that give them this advantage we may 
mention. They are already acquainted with our condition, 
and need no instruction about it, while theirs is so different 
from ours, that without instruction we would not know them ; 
as in the case of John just now given. Secondly, they have 
those in heaven who can give them instruction about us, — 
many of our most intimate friends are there, — while we have 
none on earth who can give us any information of them. 
We have but little information of the millions beyond the 
flood — that contained in the Bible — and the millions after 
the flood; but they have the representatives of all ages in 
heaven, and, it may be, a definite history of every individual 
fromAdam till the present time recorded in the books of 
God, to which they have probably access, and in reading 
which they spend delightful pastimes. In this way Abra- 
ham may have learned who Dives was. So in Hades there 
are the representatives of all ages since the beginning of 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 83 



time, and thus from the contemporaries of Abraham, Dives 
may have learned who Abraham was; as for Lazarus, he 
knew him on sight as the poor beggar he had seen at his 
gate. Why should not spirits in both states instruct each 
other, as angels instructed man or the elder instructed John ? 
What they have known they have not forgotten ; and what 
is learned from others, or taught to others, they never forget. 
By tradition, preserved by inspiration, Moses obtained the 
material parts of the early history of man ; and in heaven 
the patriarchal fathers still retain all the knowledge they 
transmitted by tradition ; and so all the prophets and apos- 
tles retain all they wrote and spoke, " as they were moved 
by the Holy Grhostj" and every saint carries to heaven new 
information, and learns more; and so mutual instruction may 
be one of the employments of heaven. Thirdly, added to 
these advantages, they are more exalted in intellect than we 
are in the present state. Now invest us with these advan- 
tages, and we ^' shall know as we are known. '^ The ma- 
terials for a complete history of this world might be ga- 
thered from the spirits in the separate states; and had we 
the intellects, the time, and other advantages they have, we 
would in time know as much about them as they know of 
us. And this shall be so; for we shall see them "face to 
face," when we shall have passed from our spiritual child- 
hood to the manhood of our being; we shall know them as 
they know us when we become what they are. 

The passage of Scripture before us is a twofold propo- 
sition. "I shall know" is one; "I am known" is the 
other. That I shall be known in the future state is incon- 
testible. But what shall I be known to be ? I cannot be 
known as any other than a sinner saved by grace. This 
will be required in order that the glory of God in redemp- 
tion may be known in heaven ; and the more exalted the 
saints shall be, the brighter the divine glory will appear. 



84 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



This will be required in order that I may understand my 
relation to God in heaven, and know how much I owe to 
him for my salvation ; otherwise gratitude would be impos- 
sible where the profoundest and noblest gratitude should 
exist. I must remember what I was, before I can be grate- 
ful for what I am. 

That the praise of saints in heaven proceeds upon the grate- 
ful remembrance of what they were on earth is clearly inti- 
mated by John. " And they sung as it were a new song before 
the throne," &c., "and no man could learn that song but the 
hundred and forty-four thousand" — a definite for an indefi- 
nite number — " iJiat were redeemed from the earth." And 
why could they learn it ? Because they remember the time 
when the Spirit first flashed conviction into their understand- 
ings. They remember when they first felt the painful sense 
of guilt, condemnation, and death, and the bitter pangs of 
repentance, and their hearts were thrilled with a sense of 
forgiveness, peace, and life through faith in the crucified 
Saviour. They remember the time when they first obtained 
the witness of the Spirit to their justification; when they 
advanced from grace to grace, and grew in the knowledge 
and love of Grod ; when they felt an increasing attraction to 
the cross of Christ; when they hungered and thirsted after 
righteousness, and were filled ; when they mourned over in- 
bred sin, and it was extirpated and they were comforted ; 
when they passed through deep waters of affliction, and 
were kept from sinking; when they were tempted severely, 
and were delivered gloriously; when they were persecuted 
violently, and were supported graciously; when their dan- 
gers were frightful and their deliverance wonderful. They 
remember the time when they sang, and prayed, and fasted, 
and labored, and suffered, and rejoiced, with the people of 
Grod on their way to heaven. They remember the time 
when they knelt at the sacramental table, and commemo- 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 85 



rated the death of Christ, and anticipated his coming, and 
eternal communion with him and his saints forever in hea- 
ven. They remember the time when they read and studied 
the word of Grod, and heard it preached, and followed its 
light, and rejoiced in its exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises. They remember the time when they were connected 
with a weak and mortal body, and were oppressed with fa- 
tigue, and languor, and disease, and pain, and many imper- 
fections and infirmities, that held them to the earth and 
bowed them to the grave. They remember the time when 
they stood and knelt and wept at the bedside of dear dying 
relatives, and followed them one by one to the grave, and 
hoped to meet them again in heaven. They remember the 
time when they were sick themselves, and the death-hour 
came, and the gracious support they then received, and the 
moment of dissolution, and the rapture of the first glimpses 
of heaven, and their flight toward heaven, and the entranc- 
ing melody of the distant cherubim as they approached hea- 
ven, and their first ecstasies on entering heaven in meeting 
and greeting all their sainted dead, and joining the eternal 
fellowship of Grod and his holy family. 

Does not Adam remember his bliss in Eden, and the beau- 
teous world, and his sin, and his guilt, and the fig-leaves, and 
the curse, and the expulsion, and the flaming cherubim, and 
the sweat on his brow, and the hope that gleamed on him and 
guided him to the celestial Eden ? And is he not still watch- 
ing that hope flashing with increasing brightness down the 
long line of his posterity to the end of time ? Does not Abel 
remember his accepted sacrifices on the rude altars of earliest 
sacrifice, and the rapture of the first martyrdom ? Does not 
Enoch remember his walk with Grod in the mornino; lio-ht of 
redemption, and his visions of the final judgment, and his 
mysterious translation, and his presence at the transfiguration? 
Does not Noah remember the antediluvian wickedness, and 



86 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



the ark^ and tlie flood, and the wasted earth, and its renewal, 
and his prophecies ? And is he not still beholding the unfold- 
ing of his prophecies in the posterity of his sons in the 
rising and falling nations and tribes of the earth? Does not 
Abraham remember his call from his father's house, amid 
the universal wickedness, and his many wanderings, and his 
entertainments of the angels, and his prayer for the devoted 
cities, and the magnificence of the promise in his '' seed,'' 
and the struggle and the triumph in the trial of his faith 
at the altar on which his meek Isaac was bound, and the 
blissful moment when he was gathered unto ''his people" ? 
Does not Jacob remember his departure from his father's 
house, and his vision of the angelic ladder, and his wrestling 
with the Angel of the everlasting covenant, and his agony 
on the loss and his rapture on the recovery of Joseph, and 
his prophetic blessings given his sons on his death-bed, and 
the ecstasy of the meeting and greeting of " his people" in 
heaven ? Does not Job remember his sackcloth and ashes, 
and the wretchedness of his humiliation, and the death of 
his children, and the desolation of his home, and returning 
health, prosperity, and happiness, and the transcendent 
glory of his latter days? Does not Moses remember his edu- 
cation in the palace of Pharaoh, and the bondage in Egypt, 
and the flaming bush, and the ten plagues, and the divided 
sea, and the journeyings in the wilderness, and the smitten 
gushing rock, and the pillar of cloud and fire, and the ark 
of the covenant, and the legal mountain, and his talking 
with God upon it, and his concealment in the cleft of the 
rock, and his momentary visions of the balmy hills and shady 
bowers of the Canaan he could not enter, and his ascent to 
the heavenly Canaan from the summit of Pisgah ? Does 
not Aaron remember his priesthood, and the import of all 
the types, and shadows, and symbols, and figurative repre- 
sentations, of the Jewish dispensation ? Does not Elijp.h 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES 



remember the persecutions of Ahab, and his preservation 
by the ravens in his retreat, and his triumph over the false 
prophets on Mount Carmel, and his prayer soon after on the 
top of Mount Carmel for rain, and when and how he as- 
cended to heaven in a chariot of fire ? Does not David re- 
member his pastoral life, and the victory of the sling, and 
his life when king, and the seraphic music and psalms of 
his royal harp? and is he not now anticipating the fulfilment 
of his prophetic songs upon his celestial lyre? Does not 
Isaiah remember the angel that flew with a live coal from 
heaven's altar, and purified and inflamed his lips with in- 
spiration, and does he not remember the august panorama 
of prophecy that unrolled before him, and is he not still 
anticipating the grand conclusion ? Does not Jeremiah re- 
member his mournful lamentations " for the slain of the 
daughter of his people" ? and Ezekiel the fiery wheel of 
divine Providence, and the lightnings that played around 
it, and the nations that went down and crumbled to dust 
beneath it, and is he not still watching its sublime and 
wonderful revolutions ? and Daniel his calm and sweet re- 
pose in the den of lions, and how he was delivered by the 
angel of God, and the mysterious characters of fire traced 
by the armless hand on the marble walls of the palace, and 
his interpretation and the immediate fulfilment of them, and 
his splendid prophecies, and the promises of rest at the end 
of the days ? and the three Hebrew children their pleasant 
walk in the fiery furnace, and how they were delivered by 
the Son of man ? — and so of the rest of the prophets and 
saints of the Old Testament dispensation. 

Do not the apostles remember their call to the apostle- 
ship, and their travels with Christ, and the miracles he 
performed, and the lessons he taught, and the blessed inter- 
views they had with him, and the wonderful scenes of Pen- 
tecost, and the amazing events that succeeded, and the 



88 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



churches they planted, and the sacred writings they wrote, 
and the memorable lives they lived, and — save one — the 
glorious martyrdom they suffered ? Do not three of them 
remember the glory of Tabor and the agony of Gethsemane? 
Does not Peter remember also his weak faith on the sea, his 
denial of Christ, repentance, and forgiveness, his commission 
to the Grentiles, his serene slumber in the prison, and how 
he was delivered by the angel of the Lord, and his singular 
crucifixion ? Does not Thomas remember his doubting 
faith and the rapturous demonstration ? Does not John 
remember his glorious exile in Patmos ? Does not Paul re- 
member his temporary translation and the thorn in the 
flesh ? Does not Stephen remember his bold defence of 
Christianity before the council of his enemies, and how calmly 
he fell asleep in the resplendence of martyrdom ? Do not 
the daughter of Jairus, and the widow's son, and Lazarus, 
remember when they were raised from the dead ? and the 
sick when they were healed, and the blind when they re- 
ceived sight, and the deaf hearing, and the dumb speech, 
and the possessed of devils deliverance ? Have the '' three 
thousand'^ forgotten the day of Pentecost? or any of the 
apostolic saints their day ? or the martyrs their sufferings ? 
or the saints of any age, in any country, the amazing grace 
and wonderful providence of Grod that saved them ? 

No wonder "the redeemed from the earth'^ can learn and 
sing the " new song'' in heaven. The grateful remembrance 
of their probationary state furnishes them with the mate- 
rials of the song, and each has his peculiar strains. You 
might just as well conclude that they are insensible of their 
glorious state, as that they can forget their gracious state ; 
that they can never know themselves, nor be known at all, 
as that they do not know themselves, nor are known, as 
redeemed from the earth ; that they do not know what God 
does for them in heaven, as that they can forget what God 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 



did for them on earth. They can never estimate or appre- 
ciate what God does for them in heaven, unless they re- 
member what God did for them on earth ; and so they can 
never be known in heaven but as redeemed from the earth. 
They can never know how much God did for them on earth 
till they know what heaven is, nor how much God loved 
them till they know his love in heaven. How can they 
enjoy the rest of heaven, unless they remember the fatigue 
by the way? or the bliss of heaven, unless they remember 
the suffering by the way? or the security of heaven, unless 
they remember the dangers by the way? or the reward of 
heaven, unless they know why they are rewarded ? How 
can they know what they are in heaven, unless they re- 
member what they were on earth? or why they are in hea- 
ven, unless they remember how they reached heaven ? How 
can they know the greatness of their glory, unless they 
know the greatness of their deliverance ? How can they 
sing "Worthy is -the Lamb that was slain, '^ unless they 
remember when he was slain and why he was slain ? And 
whatever changes may be involved in the heavenly state, 
these must be known in order to be matter of grateful praise. 
I never could know my right to these changes, or my right 
to heaven, unless I remembered what I was by sin and what 
I became by grace. 

Therefore, to know me in heaven is to know what I was 
on earth, and to know what I was on earth is to recognise 
me ; and upon the same basis I shall recognise others. 

We reach the same conclusions by other arguments. 
1. No one, in any subsequent stage or period of his exist- 
ence, can ever completely bring himself to feel that every 
faculty and point of his nature has been reversed, and that 
he is a totally different being from what he was : the inde- 
structibility of personal identity, already discussed, is proof 
of this. 2. It is impossible that a soul subsequently created, 



90 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



which is indeed another soul, can recognise impressions, 
operations, affections, volitions, and acts, as its own, which 
properly belong to the preceding soul. As well might I 
recognise i/our mental states and acts as mine, which is 
impossible. 3. Such a doctrine would subvert the foun- 
dation of free-agency and responsibility. 4. Such a state 
would not be our immortality, but another's : the chain of 
existence would be broken. 5. There could be neither jus- 
tice nor propriety in the proceedings of the judgment; for 
the subsequent soul could not be answerable for the con- 
duct of the preceding and extinct soul. 6. The subsequent 
soul could not justly and properly be the subject of the 
reward or punishment for deeds done by another soul in 
time. 7. If a subsequent soul be possible in the future 
state, we may as rationally conclude that our present soul is 
a subsequent soul, and, analogous to the ancient theory of 
metempsychosis, we have already had a pre-existent state. If 
so, then revelation is inferior to the ancient philosophy, for, 
according to that, the soul retained the consciousness of its 
identity, and the remembrance of its former states, in every 
new and successive state. 8. If I shall not be substantially 
the same in heaven I was on earth, I cannot be grateful to 
God for my redemption : for how can I be grateful for that 
which I have forgotten ? 9. If I shall not be the same, I 
cannot know what I was in the former state. That is, if I 
shall be so far altered as to be deprived of memory, I cannot 
be conscious that I have been changed at all, or that I ever 
had any antecedent existence. Or, if I shall be so far 
altered as to be deprived of the consciousness of my identity, 
I can have no remembrance of my former existence. Or, 
if I shall be so far altered as to be deprived of my under- 
standing, which involves the loss of memory, I shall have 
no power remaining to take cognizance of my former state. 
10. In a word, if I shall not be the same in the future state 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 91 



that I am now, I shall become extinct at death. So then 
the whole question resolves itself into this : Shall /exist in 
a future state, or not ? If not, then my hopes of the future, 
and the Bible that encourages them, are the sublimest de- 
lusions that ever captivated the mind of man; and the 
immeasurable magnificence of the natural universe, and the 
being of Grod himself, are matters of trivial, because tempo- 
rary, importance to me : — conclusions which I heartily reject. 
But if I shall exist in a future state, — and I must, unless I 
become extinct at death, — then I shall be known as the same 
substantially I was on earth ; and so I must be recognised. 
But I shall know as I am known ; and therefore I shall re- 
cognise my friends and relations in the future state. The 
issue is between annihilation and recognition. Every argu- 
ment against annihilation — and they are numberless and 
overwhelming — is in favor of recognition. Belief in the 
transmutation of the soul into some other essence were as 
absurd as that of annihilation, since transmutation would 
be equivalent to annihilation. Nor can endless progress of 
the soul prevent recognition, since I must know myself 
every step in the progress, before I can know that / have 
made any progress, or that there is any advancement at all 
in my case. And so, what my friends shall know of me I 
shall know of them, and their knowledge of me and mine 
of them involves recognition ; for they cannot know me, 
nor I them, without a mutual recognition. If it be replied, 
that the issue is between ignorance and recognition of my 
friends, I reply, the exaltation of the heavenly state pre- 
cludes the possibility of ignorance, and, therefore, one of the 
sweetest and richest fruits of knowledge in heaven will be 



recognition. 



5. The work of the Christian ministry involves recognition. 

'^ Christ in you, the hope of glory : whom we preach, 

warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom ; 



92 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



that we may j^resewi^ every man perfect in Christ Jesus :" 
Col. i. 28. How can the apostle know thatj in preaching 
Jesus, he had faithfully warned and properly and fully 
taught those under his charge, unless the effect of his 
preaching receive the sanction of Jesus himself? And how 
can he know what this effect is, unless he see it developed 
in those to whom he preached ? And how can he see this 
effect developed, unless he know those to whom he preached ? 
How can he know that this effect of his preaching is com- 
plete or ^^ perfect/' unless in the presentation of his charge 
to Christ he recognise in them the different stages of progress 
unto perfection ? How can the apostle present any man to 
Christ, without knowing whom he presents and why he pre- 
sents him ? The effect of the gospel cannot be disconnected 
from the man, for it is this that determines the man ; and hence 
to see the effect in those to whom the apostle preached is to 
recognise them. If the apostle were to appear before Christ 
without seals to his ministry, where were the evidences of 
the authority and efficacy of his ministry ? or how can he 
meet his own responsibility without presenting the seals of 
his ministry? Orif saints, converted through his instrument- 
ality, were to appear before Christ without any reference to 
his instrumentality, how could the apostle present them ? 
Let it be assumed that the ministry will not know their 
people at the Judgment, and this text has no intelligible 
meaning. 

Again, ^^We are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours 
in the day of the Lord Jesus :" 2 Cor. i. 14. We now 
know one another, and are a mutual comfort in our " suf- 
ferings" (v. 5) in Christ ; and so we shall be a mutual joy 
in the day of the Lord, the day of judgment; and how can 
this be without a mutual recognition ? Before a persecut- 
ing world ^'ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are 
your rejoicing/' that ye are comforted and supported by 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 93 



the gospel which we preach; and so our mutual rejoicing 
shall be complete in the day of the Lord Jesus : which clearly 
implies recognition. 

Again, " Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Je- 
sus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us 
with you :'' 2 Cor. iv. 14. ^' Death to us'' is inevitable ; 
but it " worketh life in you/' (v. 12 ;) and so we shall soon 
be separated. But death itself shall not separate us for- 
ever. As certainly as the Lord Jesus has arisen from the 
dead, we shall rise also, and be presented with you : we 
shall meet again. But there would be no force in this pas- 
sage, no source of consolation to the apostle and the church 
at Corinth, in view of persecution and separation, if neither 
he nor they entertained the doctrine of future reunion and 
mutual recognition. 

Again, ''For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of re- 
joicing ? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Je- 
sus at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy:" 
1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. Is it reasonable to conclude that Paul, 
and Peter, and John, and all the rest of the first preachers 
of the gospel, forsook every thing, and labored, and suf- 
fered, and risked and expended their lives, for the conver- 
sion and salvation of men, and yet indulged no hope of 
meeting and recognising and rejoicing with their converts 
at the coming of Christ ? Shall they preach to them, and 
rejoice with them, and know them intimately in endeavoring 
to save them, and yet not know them and rejoice with them 
when they are saved ? If so, then where were the " hope" 
of the apostle, or what his '^joy, or glory, or crown of re- 
joicing, at the coming of the Lord Jesus" ? He speaks of a 
peculiar hope ; and did he not know what that hope was ? 
His, and all true and faithful ministers' joy, shall be a pecu- 
liar "joy;" and shall they not know what that joy is ? A 
peculiar ''crown of rejoicing" shall be theirs; and shall they 



94 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



not know what that is ? A peculiar ''glory" shall be theirs; 
and shall they not know what that is ? How is it possible 
to hope without knowing for what we hope ? or to rejoice 
without knowing the cause of our joy? or to be invested 
with a glory or a crown without knowing their nature and 
significance ? The apostle spoke of a race, a wrestling, a 
fight, a warfare, a crown, a glory ; but not a race or wrest- 
ling like the G-recian, nor a warfare like the Roman, nor a 
crown like Caesar's, nor a glory like that of the world. And 
when the race is won, and the battle fought, and the war- 
fare over, and the glory acquired, and the crown bestowed, 
what have you, faithful ministers of God ? Why, that which 
you sought — "joy in having saved souls, and a "crown of 
glory" for that. And shall you not know these souls ? If 
not, how will you know that the}?^ are saved ? and how then 
can you rejoice? or where were your title to the crown and 
the glory? or where were the evidence that you had not la- 
bored in vain ? By as much as souls are precious, and their 
salvation will be glorious, is the work of the ministry to be 
estimated ; and to deny the doctrine of heavenly recognition 
is not only to abridge the anticipated reward of the apostle, 
but to render his language vague, if not wholly unintelli- 
gible. 

The plain meaning of this passage may be learned from 
the context. " But we, brethren, being taken from you for 
a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more 
abundantly to see your face with great desire. And would 
have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again : but Sa- 
tan hindered us.'' That is, we are separated, yet you are 
in my heart; I have a great desire to see your face, and 
have endeavored again and again to see you, but have been 
hindered; and "tribulation, affliction, and distress" (iii. 8) 
may prevent our meeting again on earth. What then ? 
Why, nevertheless, we look over all to the meeting at the 



ARGUMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 95 



coming of tlie Lord Jesus^ in whose presence je shall be 
our ^'joy, our glory, and crown of rejoicing." Whatever else 
the connection indicates, it strongly teaches the doctrine of 
recognition. Indeed, whatever the connection means, that is 
made the ground of future recognition. That is, as, in the 
work of the ministry, your salvation is our hope, and as ye 
shall be our reward, ^^our joy, our glory, our crown of rejoic- 
ing," in the day of judgment ; therefore we shall see each 
other's face then, and rejoice together, when neither tribula- 
tion, affliction, distresses, nor Satan can ever separate us. 

Again : " Holding forth the word of life : that I may re- 
joice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, 
neither labored in vain :" Phil, ii, 16. It is an unspeak- 
able comfort to the minister to know in this life that his 
labors are successful in the salvation of souls and edification 
and encouragement of the church ', and this comfort he can- 
not enjoy without knowing those who are blest under his 
ministry. So he cannot, it seems, know, at the day of 
judgment, whether he has run or labored in vain, unless he 
meet and know there those of his converts who " held forth 
the word of life," who gave to the world the light of a godly 
example and influence, and lived and died as seals to his 
ministry. Recognition is then essential as a proof of the 
success and usefulness of the gospel ministry, 

6. The hope of reunion and recognition is made tbe 
ground of comfort to the church in bereavement. '' I would 
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them 
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as. others which 
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him. And the dead in Christ shall rise first : 
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air: and so shall ice ever he ivith the Lord. Wherefore 



96 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



comfort one another with these words:" 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. 
Firstj the Thessalonians already believed in the doctrine of 
the general resurrection. Secondly, the apostle would teach 
the Thessalonians that one of the circumstances of the gene- 
ral resurrection is reunion with their sainted dead. Thirdly, 
that this reunion shall be 'perpetual. Fourthly, that this 
reunion shall as certainly be effected as the death and resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ have already occurred. But what 
'' comfort'' would there be in these great and sublime truths, 
if they were not made the ground of the hope of future 
recognition ? The hope of reunion involves the very idea 
of recognition. What kind of reunion is that which is with- 
out recognition ? True, we feel the deepest solicitude con- 
cerning the eternal safety of our deceased friends; but if 
this were all, that solicitude would be allayed upon the 
assurance that they are safe in heaven ; and then our " com- 
fort'' would be complete without the hope of reunion. Why, 
however, does the apostle develop so prominently the fact 
of reunion, if he does not design to enhance our '•'■ comfort" 
with the hope of recognition ? 

Assume that the apostle refers only to the reunion of all 
Christians indiscriminately in the general resurrection : 
granted. And then a mutual knowledge obviously is 
implied ; and if so, mutual recognitions must follow, for I 
cannot know a friend without recognising him. Indeed, 
this seems to be the scope of the apostle's argument. He 
wishes to comfort the Thessalonians who were mourning 
over their deceased friends and relatives. To do this, he 
refers to the certain resurrection and reunion of all that 
sleep in Jesus. Your sainted dead, therefore, Thessalonians, 
shall be in the general assembly of the saints. But the 
union of all the saints implies a knowledge and love of one 
another; this is self-evident, or, rather, we cannot conceive 
how it can be otherwise, because there can be no union 



ARGUiMENTS FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 97 



among saints without knowledge and love. Therefore, as 
certainly, Thessalonians, as you shall join the general assem- 
bly of the saints in the general resurrection, you shall be 
reunited to your sainted friends, and eonsequentl3^ recognise 
them. The greater contains the less: ''wherefore comfort 
one another with these words.^' 

But it is time to turn our attention to another branch of 
the argument in favor of the heavenly recognition. 



PAET II. 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE GREATER TO THE LESS, 
NAMELY: WE SHALL KNOW THOSE WHOM WE HAVE 
NOT KNOWN 5 AND, THEREFORE, WE SHALL KNOW 
THOSE WHOM WE HAVE KNOWN. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL THE ANGELIC ORDERS. 

We assume that the saints shall know every angelic 
intelligence in the universe and eternity. This is our first 
argument. 

Redemption by Jesus Christ is the great work of Grod, 
that unites his saints with every order of holy intelligences, 
wherever they may be distributed in immensity, or when- 
ever, in the immeasurable periods of the past, they 
were created, or in whatever employments they may be 
engaged, or however exalted they may be in the scale of 
being. Up through all the superior orders of holy spirits, 
however extended and exalted, to the first angel that awoke 
to being in the creative hand of God and breathed his pure 
song of adoring love upon the stillness of a past eternity, 
the knowledge of the saints will extend; and with all they 
will be associated in the holiest bonds and enjoy the most 
intimate and familiar communion. This is a bold position, 
and we turn reverently to the Scriptures for evidence of the 
truth of it. 

In the Son of God are concentrated all the essential attri- 
butes of Creator, Lawgiver, Ruler, Saviour, and Judge. 
He assumed and glorified humanity : what then must be the 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 99 



intimacy of the relations of saints to God and all his created 
intelligences! He who is the Creator, Lawgiver, Ruler, 
and Judge, of every order of holy beings, is the Saviour of 
man : what then is the destiny of saints ! what the glory to 
be reflected upoa the Godhead by the application of the re- 
demptive principle ! All orders of intelligences feel the 
profoundest interest in the work of redemption, and derive 
from it their sublimest views of the nature of God ; because 
in it every attribute of Jehovah is carried immeasurably 
beyond what had been done in their case, or what it was 
possible for them to conceive of Deity. 

Angels, rejoice in Jesus' grace. 
And vie with man's more favor'd race; 
The blood that did for us atone 
Conferred on you some gi/t unhnoion; 
Your joy through Jesus' pains abounds, 
Ye triumph by his glorious wounds. 

Him ye beheld, our conquering God, 

Return with garments rolled in blood ! 

Ye saw, and kindled at the sight. 

And filled with shouts the realms of light; 

With loudest hallelujahs met. 

And fell, and kissed his bleeding feet. 

Ye saw him in the courts above 

With all his recent prints of love ; 

The wounds, the blood ! ye heard its voice, 

That keighten'd all your highest joys ; 

Ye felt it sprinkled through the skies, 

And shared that better sacrifice. C. Wesley. 

At one time their interest is excited to shouting that re- 
sounds like great thunders through the eternal heavens; 
and at another time their interest is so profound, their 
expectation or wonder so intense, that silence reigns through- 
out all their orders, indicating most clearly that the incar- 
nate "Word rules over all worlds, and has called around his 



100 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



cross his adoring and wondering universe. If such r<».it 
and immeasurable interests be treasured up in the Incarna- 
tion, surely man himself in their unfolding must run them 
out to their farthest extremity, take them up in all their 
Bcope, and follow them forth in all their bearing upon all 
other ranks of beings in the universe. If man stands in the 
brightest light in the universe, that attracts all other orders 
of intelligences into it to gaze in wonder upon him and his 
redeeming God, strange that he should not see and know 
them in that light ! strange that the light that acquaints 
them with him should not acquaint him with them ! strange 
that they should know man in his relation to God as Re- 
deemer, and man should never know them in their relation 
to God as Creator ! strange that those of a common parent- 
age should not be equally acquainted with one another ! that 
God should be known in the redemption of man, and not in 
the creation and government of angels ! 

The Father has " set the Son above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to 
come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him 
to be the head over all things to the church, which is his 
body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all :" Eph. i. 20- 
23. Again : " Wherefore God hath also highly exalted 
him, and given him a name which is above every name : 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father:" Phil. ii. 9-11. 
Again: "For by him were all things created that are in 
heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : 
all things were created by him, and for him :'^ Colos. i. 16. 
These are among the sublimest sayings of revelation. The 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 101 



Redeemer of saints is enthroned " far above" all ranks of 
intelligences in the universe and in eternity, and exalts his 
saints to the "throne" he occupies and to the "mansions" 
he has prepared for them. Had the Adamic order of crea- 
tion, which was "a little lower" than that of "the angels," 
(Ps. viii. 5,) continued uninterrupted, it is conceivable how 
the advantage might have been on the side of angels ; but, 
bj the "working of the mighty power" of God in redemp- 
tion, the saints are transferred to a higher position in the 
scale of creation than that occupied by all other orders of 
holy beings; and when their "understanding" is "enlight- 
ened" and strengthened by celestial energy, they shall 
"know what are the riches of the glory of their inheritance" 
in him, " and what is the exceeding greatness of his power" 
toward them: Eph. i, 18, 19. Angels, in all their orders, 
look aloft to the saints of Grod ; and on their way to those 
transcendent heights in the glory of God, the saints will 
become acquainted with every inferior rank of intelligences 
in the holy and adoring universe over whom the Son of 
God sways his sceptre ; so that the difficulty seems rather 
to be how other orders of intelligences shall know the saints, 
than how saints shall know them. The Godhead never 
assumed the form of angels, (Heb. ii. 16,) but the form of 
man, for in Christ " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily," Col. ii. 9 ; and so humanity in Christ is the link 
that binds his saints to God first in the chain of creation, 
and highest in heirship to God, since they are thus made 
^^ joint heirs with Christ :" Rom. viii. 17. Is it consistent 
with such a dignity and exaltation to suppose that angels 
are endowed with an intellectual capacity sufficient to know 
the saints, and that the saints are not endowed with an in- 
tellectual capacity sufficient to know the angels ? or, if the 
question turn not. upon comparative capacities for knowledge, 

that the angels will have the means of knowing the saints, 

9* 



102 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN 



and the saints have no means of knowing the angels ? or, 
if it be a question of relative interest merely, that ^' the 
angels desire to look into'' (1 Pet. i. 12) and understand 
the history of saints, and the saints have no desire to look 
into and understand the history of angels? or, if it be a 
question of spiritual and holy fellowship, that angels should 
know those above them, and the saints not know those below 
them, in the vast family of God ? 

That the influence of the Cross pervades the countless 
hosts of the universe of mind is evident, not only from what 
we have just now said, but from the great visions of Daniel 
and John. ^^ And I beheld till the Ancient of days did sit 
— and thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him :" Dan. vii. 9, 
10. ^' And I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels 
round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders : and 
the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
and thousands of thousands ; saying with a loud voice, Wor- 
thy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and bless- 
ing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the 
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, 
heard I, saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, 
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said. Amen. 
And the four-and-twenty elders fell down and worshipped 
him that liveth forever and ever:'' Rev. v. 11, 14. "And 
all the angels stood around about the throne, and about the 
elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on 
their faces, and worshipped Grod, saying. Amen : Blessing, 
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and 
power, and might, be unto our Grod forever and ever. 
Amen:" Rev. vii. 11, 12. The most fervid interest excited 
in the entire family of God! The immense and countless 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 103 



hosts of the lofty intelligences of the universe animated by 
the influence of the Cross ! thrilled and rapt to the utmost 
intensity of their exalted natures by the scheme and the 
measureless effects of redemption ! dropping, it seems, their 
old songs and services, and uniting with the saints to swell 
the "new song" of redemption, or at least to furnish the 
richest chorus they can breathe from their pure angelic 
bosoms ! When saints shall be exalted to the station of which 
angels exultingly foresee they are capable, and to which 
they are destined in the illimitable scale of holy intelli- 
gences, what reason can be given why they should not know 
every angel in the universe of God ? The influence of the 
atonement is greater on the holy universe of mind than any 
other of the works of God : why should not the efficacy of 
the atonement be greater, in developing and exalting the 
intellectual and moral faculties of the saints, than original 
creative energy was in the case of any other order of the 
hosts of eternity ? It is not presuming too far to say that 
by the efficacy of the atonement the saints will be endued 
with strength of faculties for attainments in knowledge and 
holiness far above the capacity of every other order of intel- 
ligences; for the purifying, life-giving, expanding efficacy of 
the atonement, which fills the saints ^^ with all the fulness 
of God," must enlarge and exalt the mind to the utmost 
bounds of possibility. The Cross is the only power in the 
universe that can draw sinners to God, and qualify finite 
intelligences to sit with Christ on his throne ; and saints 
are exalted to this distinguished honor — an honor with 
which we know not that any angel has ever been dignified. 
On the law of the indefinite expansibility of mind, it is pre- 
sumable that the influence of the Cross excited neiu emo- 
tions of reverence and love in the hearts of all the angelic 
orders, and enlarged their views of the nature of God ] but 
the efficacy of the Cross is peculiarly the principle on which 



104 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



man is introduced among the ranks of created intelligences, 
and hence includes in it prospectively a degree of know- 
ledge and holiness superior to that of the rest of the vast 
family of God ; which includes, at least, the possibility on 
the part of saints of becoming acquainted with every intelli- 
gence in the universe and in eternity. 

Included in the great design of the atonement is the re- 
storation of man to association with the holy universe ; and 
such a restoration includes in it a knowledge of the universe. 
In the work of creation, Grod breathed into the nature of 
angels the affection of love, that prompts them to seek a 
knowledge of the saints, and to commingle their loftiest 
strains in praising the God of their salvation ; and so, in the 
greater work of redemj)tion, the Holy Spirit breathes into 
the hearts of saints the same affection, that prompts them to 
seek a knowledge of the angelic hosts. God in creation and 
redemption is the same God of love ; and the same inspired 
affection that now draws angels to saints will in eternity 
draw the saints to all the holy orders in the universe ; and 
love is impossible without knowledge. It is worthy of ob- 
servation that true evangelical love in this life attracts its 
blessed possessor to all holy characters, without distinction 
of the relations of social love, or friendship, or church, or 
country, or periods of time ; and the ultimate end of this 
holy spiritual affection may be to unite the saints in the 
most intimate companionship with the entire holy universe 
of God, commencing with the first order created, and run- 
ning onward along the endless series of new creations. In- 
extinguishable and illimitable will be evangelical love in 
beatified saints; and their knowledge will be co-extensive 
with their love. Such is the comprehensive view of St. 
Paul, who writes like an angel commissioned with intelli- 
gence from heaven. " Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and 
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 105 



to a7i innumerable coraipany of angels^ to the general assem- 
hly of the church of the first-horn, which are written in 
heaven, and to Grod the Judge of all, and to the spirits of 
just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new 
covenant,^^ &c.: Heb. xiii. 22, 24. 

Astronomers tell us that immensity of space is thronged 
with countless and vast systems of worlds; and that by the 
power of gravity the totality of the systems is drawn around 
a great and common centre. It is so in the moral universe. 
All the hosts of God constitute one vast family, united by the 
ties of holy love to one another, and circling, as we have 
seen, under the influence of evangelical love, around the 
Sun of righteousness, the order of the saints revolving nearest 
this glorious Sun, and beyond the saints, and to the saints, 
the rest of the universe shining in clear and open vision. 

There are other considerations. Angels are ^' minister- 
ing spirits" to the saints in this life : and shall not the 
saints know these guardian angels in the future state ? 
Angels now rejoice over the penitence of sinners : and shall 
not the saints know and converse with these rejoicing spirits 
in heaven ? Angels conduct the saints from earth to hea- 
ven, as in the case of Lazarus to Abraham's bosom : and 
shall not the saints know the angels when they enter hea- 
ven? Angels have been seen and known on earth, as in 
the case of Jacob in Bethel, Daniel in Babylon, John in 
Patmos, Peter in prison, the shepherds in Judea, the Marys 
at the sepulchre; and the disciples saw a cloud of angels at 
the ascension of Christ: and shall not the saints see and 
know the angels in heaven ? Ano-els have instructed the 
saints in great matters on earth, as in the case of the angel 
who "showed" John ''the things to come;" and the whole 
book of Revelation shows us how one spirit instructs an- 
other : and shall not angels relate their own history to the 
saints in the future state ? For example : "And one of the 



106 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



elders said unto me, What are these that are arrayed in white 
robes ? and whence came they ? And I said unto him, Sir, 
thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which 
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. There- 
fore are they before the throne of Grod, and serve him day 
and night in the temple : and he that sitteth upon the throne 
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes :" Rev. vii. 13-17. Who are these ? 
whence are they. ^' Sir, thou canst inform me;'' and the 
^^ elder" did inform John. In a similar way the saints may 
obtain knowledge of the origin, nature, character, services, 
condition, and position, of every order of intelligences in the 
universe. Angels themselves will relate the astonishing 
wonders of the invisible world, or the knowledge of their 
respective histories will lie open to the understandings of 
the saints, just as the amazing wonders of the power and 
wisdom 9,nd goodness of God in redemption now lie open to 
the vision of angels. As the angels communicated sublime 
information to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, respecting 
the plans of Grod in providence and grace, they will com- 
municate information respecting themselves when the saints 
shall be exalted to companionship and friendship with them, 
and converse with them '''■ face to face." It is reasonable to 
suppose that tidings of astonishing discoveries will be brought 
by exploring angels from the remotest parts of God's vast 
dominions, which shall enlighten and ravish with delight 
all the saints in glory ; indeed, saints may accompany the 
angels in these grand expeditions. An angel informed 
Daniel that there is a volume in heaven called the " Scrip- 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 10' 



ture of truth,^' and revealed to him ^Hliat which is noted'* 
in it relating to the history of man's redemption ; and there 
is another book in heaven, which the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah ^'prevailed to open, and to loose the seven seals 
thereof;" and again and again we hear of the '^Lamb's book 
of life," in which are written the names of the saints : and 
is it not presumable that there are volumes in heaven writ- 
ten by angelic historians, which contain a complete history 
of every order of intelligences in a past eternity, and which 
will furnish the saints complete information of all the an- 
gelic hosts ? Why should the history of man alone be re- 
corded in heaven ? Why should naan alone have a book of 
God — the Bible? Indeed, our own Bible contains mncli 
information about the angels, as we have seen. What remains 
their own histories must reveal ; for surely the splendid 
fragments we have are not all we shall have in the flight of 
endless ages and endless progress in knowledge. We now 
know the name of one angel, — Gahviel, — ^and the name of one 
archangel, — Michael; and these probably are the heads or 
leaders of their orders. Shall we know none of the rest of 
their orders, and none of the "cherubim," "seraphim," 
"principalities," "powers," "thrones," and "dominions," 
and whatever ranks of intelligences may exist in the spiritual 
universe ? 

And so we have the most impressive allusions to fallen 
angels. They "sinned, and kept not their first estate, but 
left their own habitation;" they were subjects of probation. 
They are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness 
unto the judgment of the great day;" they are yet to be 
judged. They "believe and tremble;" they are apprehend- 
ing some great evil. ''Everlasting fire" is "prepared" for 
them ; they are yet to be punished. But what was their 
probationary state, where they were tried, when their trial 
commenced, how long their trial was to last, what was the 



108 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



test of their trial, what was their sin, when they fell, what 
great evil they are apprehending, what exactly will be their 
punishment, what exactly will be their future condition, or 
what exactly is their present condition, we do not know: 
and yet all these peculiarities of their history, we may rea- 
sonably suppose, will be as clearly and fully unfolded to the 
saints in the future state, as lost angels now, unquestionably, 
are intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of man's 
probationary state. 

We have also most impressive allusions to the nature and 
employments of fallen angels. They are headed by a chief 
or leader, denominated the Devil, or Beelzebub, who " goeth 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.'^ 
He '^ contended with Michael over the body of Moses,'' and 
*' fought" at the head of ''his angels" with ''Michael and 
his angels." He tempted Christ, and sows dissensions in 
his church. He changes himself " into an angel of light," 
and the apostles were "not ignorant of his devices." He 
tempted Eve, caused the fall of Adam, and tempts all his 
posterity still. He lays his wiliest snares for the most emi- 
nent servants of God ; as, for example, David, Job, Peter, 
and Paul. He is " a murderer from the beginning," and is 
" the father of lies," because " he abode not in the truth, and 
there is no truth in him." He insidiously effaces early reli- 
gious impressions from the human heart : Matt. xiii. 19. He 
exerts a tremendous and all but unconquerable power over 
the world: Acts xxvi. 18. He is called the "prince of this 
world," John xii. 31 ; and "the prince of the power of the 
air :" Eph. ii. 2. He has legions, wicked like himself, un- 
der his command, which he distributes to suit his plans, and 
many of whom were cast out of human hearts by Christ and 
his apostles. He excites to falsehood — as in the case of 
Ananias and Sapphira; to sorcery — as in the case of "Ely- 
mas the sorcerer ;" to simony — as in the case of Simon of 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. 109 



Samaria; to perfidy — as in the case of Judas; to persecu- 
tion — as in the case of the '^Bloody Beast" in the Apoca- 
lypse; and in endless ways, with the aid of his angels, 
wars maliciously, mightily, and incessantly, against God and 
man. 

With so much instruction, we have but to see the fallen 
angels to know them. And see them we shall, at the 
judgment, and when they are "cast into the lake of fire;" 
Rev. XX. 14. Yes, it is reasonable to suppose we shall 
know every forlorn fallen angel as he appears to be judged, 
is condemned, and departs to hell. Wicked men, in per- 
dition, will certainly know them all, and that with a terrible 
consternation. Abraham knew Dives on the gulf of fire : 
why might he not know every lost angel also ? Holy 
angels know their former companions, and can give the 
saints in the future state a distinct account of every one of 
them. Besides, an intimate knowledge of them is required, 
in order to see the wisdom, and power, and holiness, and 
justice, of Grod, in their condemnation and punishment. 

We have another, but brief, and, to our mind, conclusive 
argument. A perfect knowledge of all the intelligent hosts 
in the universe and in eternity is prerequisite to the vision 
of the full manifestation of the glory of God. If we stop 
short of the entire series, our knowledge of God must be so 
far defective, and hence the fulness of delight in God can 
never be known to us, — a conclusion which our ideas of God 
compel us to reject. The natural universe, in its immeasur- 
able magnitude and variety, each world with its own his- 
tory, would be a sublime mystery without a knowledge of 
its inhabitants. What meaneth yon brilliant sun in the 
remote heavens, if it shine not for man ? And the distant 
million million mighty stars, what mean they — remains to 
be disclosed to us. " In the beginning, God created the 
heavens and the earth;" for what? In ourselves we have 

10 



110 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



deep promptings to a magnificent destiny, and yet ^^it doth 
not appear what we shall be." And we have heard of count- 
less angels : who are they ? Our knowledge of them has 
excited in us a lofty admiration for them : but what remains? 
We are all a-glow to know. We know enough of them to 
have exalted our views of Grod and the future state; but 
what remains ? We almost hold our breath in expectancy ; 
and who can say there will not be silence among the saints 
in heaven when the angelic seals are opened in eternity? 
What is the deep significance of their songs and shouts at 
the creation? of the blast blown on the heights of Sinai? 
of their exultation over Judea ? of their ministry to Christ 
after the temptation? of their attendance on Him in the 
ascension ? of their homage of Him on the throne? of their 
agency in the opening the seals, and pouring out the vials, 
and sounding the trun ^ts, and uttering the thunders, and 
swelling the applause, of the Apocalypse? of their mighty 
gatherings on Mount Sion ? their presence at the judgment? 
and, from first to last, their concern in the salvation of man ? 
Who are these angels ? Why have they such a prominence 
in the universe of Grod ? We long to know. 

Much of Grod's works — how much we know not — re- 
mains to be known ; and shall we never know more of the 
angels than the Bible dimly reveals ? They are mentioned 
in the Bible only in connection with the plan of man's re- 
demption, and even in that connection much is mysterious. 
But what are they in their own nature, character, employ- 
ments, and destiny? What was the design of their crea- 
tion? What is the number of their orders, the gradation 
of the orders, and the number in each order ? Each order 
has its history, and each angel in each order has his history, 
as man has his history, and every man will have his own 
history. Personal identity runs through the whole universe 
of intelligent beings, and will be the basis of discrimination 



SAINTS SHALL KNOW ALL ANGELIC ORDERS. Ill 



among angels, as it is and will be among men. The history 
of man, in creation and redemption, has furnished the angels 
with new views of the nature of God, and so enlarged their 
knowledge and heightened their happiness ; the history 
of angels doubtless will furnish the saints with new views 
of the nature and glory of Grod, and so their knowledge 
will be enlarged and their happiness increased. They 
''excel in strength;" and the mightiness of their intellects, 
and the velocity of their motions, will exalt our views of the 
power of Grod. They are ''holy;" and the sparkling purity 
of their nature will exalt our views of the holiness of God. 
They are beings of purest love; and the ardor of their aflfec- 
tion will expand our regards for the God of love. They are 
pure spirits, it may be endued with spiritual bodies ; and 
the exquisite perfection of their -constitution will enlarge 
our views of the wisdom of Gov,'n They are capable of 
boundless happiness; and this will .enlarge our views of the 
goodness of God. They are beings of exalted dignity; and 
this will enlarge our views of the grandeur of God. They 
are beings of the noblest allegiance ; and this will exalt our 
views of the majesty of God. And what more ? They are 
countless in number; and this will exalt our views of the 
glory of God. 

Finally : each order — and the orders may be all but end- 
less — may have had its "own habitation" or place of trial, 
a different test of trial, a different mode of moral govern- 
ment, and different degrees of reward and punishment. 
They may be constituted with different degrees of intellec- 
tual and moral perfection, and different degrees of excel- 
lence and beauty in external form. Each order may have 
its peculiar characteristics, and may differ in these from one 
another, as man substantially and essentially differs from 
the angels ; and this is probable, as the celestial orders are 
designated by different titles. And every individual in 



112 RECOGNITION IN HEAYEN. 



each order may differ from all the rest of his order* each 
having his peculiar expressions of form and characteristics 
of nature, by which he may be distinguished from all the 
rest of his order ; so that there may be no two intelligences 
in the universe exactly alike, yet each in his kind a perfect 
image of God — unfolding attributes of mind of which we 
can now form no conception, performing services of which 
we can now have no idea, one angel superior in glory to an- 
other angel throughout each order, and one order of angels 
rising in perfection above another order, throughout the 
whole circle of orders, amassing glory upon glory as the 
ranks rise to Grod, and no angel or order absorbed in the 
glory of another, because of the endless differences, and be- 
cause each order and each angel reflects the distinguishing 
glory of Grod. 

We infer, then, from the light of Scripture, and the rea- 
soning founded upon it, that the saints in the future state 
will know every angelic intelligence, fallen and unfallen, in 
the universe and in eternity, whom they have not known ; 
and hence they will know those saints whom they have 
known. 



CHAPTER II. 

FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 

That we shall know those whom we have not known, we 
deduce from facts of Scripture, and hence will follow, we 
shall recognise those whom we have known. t 

1. The case of the rich man and Lazarus we have already 
considered, under the head of Recognition : we now return to 
it, to strengthen the arojument. 

First, Abraham and Dives, it seems, lived and died in 
different ages of the world, and yet in the separate state 
they knew each other : consecjuently, there was no dijficulty 
in the mutual recognition of Dives and Lazarus, who lived 
and died in the same age. Secondly, Abraham and Dives, 
previously unacquainted with each other, knew each other 
across the '^ great gulf fixed" and impassable to spirits on 
either side ; that is, they knew each other in different states : 
consequently. Dives and Lazarus, previously acquainted with 
each other, would have known each other had they been in 
the same state. Thirdly, the fact is stated that Abraham 
and Lazarus, supposed to have been previously unacquainted 
with each other, did know each other in the same state : 
consequently, spirits previously acquainted with each other 
must know each other in the same state. Fourthly, the in- 
tim,acy existing in heaven between saints previously unac- 
quainted with each other is equivalent to a demonstrative 
proof of recognition. Did not Lazarus know Abraham, in 
whose " hosom'^ he was ? And will the intimacy between 
dearest friends be less intimate in heaven — the sainted mo- 
ther and her seraph child, for example ? Fifthly, — but the 
argument is rendered unanswerable by another considera- 

10* 113 



114 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



tion. The change which Abraham and Dives had under- 
gone in the transition to their respective states did not ren- 
der the knowledge of each other impossible ; the exaltation 
of the one, and the degradation of the other, — the effect of 
the change in each case, whatever it was, — did not prevent 
their knowing one another. Hence, had Dives been exalted 
to position with Lazarus, they would have recognised each 
other. It is worthy of observation, that this case demon- 
strates that the penetration of spirits is greater in the future 
state than it is in this life, as Abraham and Dives knew 
each other, whom they had not seen — knew each other 
across the impassable gulf, that is, in different states — and 
knew each other notwithstanding the change they had un- 
dergone ; and the same will be the improvement in intellec- 
tual strength in all spirits in the future state. So far, then, 
from being incapable of recognising those we have known, 
we shall know those we have not known. 

2. The transfiguration of Christ. ^^ And after six days, 
Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, and bringeth them 
up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before 
them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment 
was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto 
them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered 
Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be 
here ; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one 
for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias:" Matt. 
xvii. 1-5. 

Here are several important particulars. Moses and Elijah 
knew each other, though six hundred years elapsed between 
the periods in which they lived. The apostles knew these 
prophets, though upward of fourteen hundred years had 
elapsed since Moses had been gathered to his fathers, 
and near nine hundred years since Elijah had been trans- 
lated. The apostles knew the Saviour, though the in- 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 115 



dwelling Godhead shone out in its fuLiesp, and so intensely, 
that his face beamed like the sun and his raiment was like 
lightj his body the model of the glorious resurrection bodies 
of the saints in eternity. Moses represented the Jewish 
law, and Elijah the prophets; and they conversed with Jesus 
about his death, which was to accomplish or fulfil the rites, 
ceremonies, and sacrifices of the Jewish dispensation, and 
the predictions respecting his death, and so unite the Jew- 
ish and Christian in one church, the apostles present repre- 
senting the church in all subsequent ages. Besides, Moses 
and Elijah must have been intimately acquainted with tho 
transactions of the Redeemer on earth ; for they are here on 
Mount Tabor, on a glorious occasion, and conversing on the 
subject involving the hopes of the world. Why are they 
here? whence came they? who summoned them ? Finally, 
a cloud of shechinal glory is spread around them, as a 
canopy to shut them in from the rest of the world ; and 
here Peter is entranced with delight, and wishes to dwell 
perpetually. 

Now if Moses and Elias knew each other, and the apos- 
tles knew them both, will not Joshua know Moses, and 
Elisha know Elijah, and the apostles one another, in heaven ? 
If the representatives of the church in difi"erent ages knew 
each other, will not the saints of one age know the saints of 
another age ? and will not the representatives know the 
saints of their ages respectively ? and so, incontestibly, will 
we not know those saints whom we have known ? If Moses 
and Elias, on Mount Tabor, knew Christ, whom they had 
not seen, will not the apostles, who had seen him, know him 
in heaven ? If the apostles, in their weak mortal bodies, 
on Mount Tabor, knew Moses and Elias in their glorified 
bodies, and Christ in his dazzling transfiguration, will they 
not know one another in their strong, spiritual, immortal, 
and glorified bodies in heaven ? And so, will not all the saints 



116 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



know one anotlier, specially those they have known ? If 
Christ, his prophets, and apostles, conversed familiarly, and 
with a mutual knowledge of each other, about the great 
sacrifice which was to unite the saints of all ages in one 
vast family, will not this great subject engage all the saints 
in heaven in the most familiar intercourse ? If Moses and 
Elias were acquainted with the affairs of redemption in their 
progress on earth, and were honored with familiar inter- 
course with Christ in his transfiguration, beneath the she- 
chinal cloud, will not the saints know their own affairs in 
glory, and converse about them in the presence of Christ ? 
Shall prophets and apostles know each other amid the dazzling 
radiance of the Godhead on Mount Tabor, and not know 
each other amid the serene glory of the Grodhead on Mount 
Zion ? Shall prophets and apostles know one another in 
the presence of the adorable Saviour on earth, and Moses 
not know Elias, nor Peter know James, nor James know 
John his brother, in heaven ? Shall the apostles of Jesus 
know his prophets, and his ministers of the present day not 
know his ministers in all ages of the church ? know his 
prophets and apostles, and not know each other ? know each 
other, and not know their congregations ? and the members 
of a congregation not know each other when glorified ? and 
the members of a family not know each other ? the parent 
not know his child, nor the friend his friend, in the land 
of superior knowledge and perfect love ? Admit that we 
shall know those we have i ot known, and arguing from the 
greater to the less, it follows, incontestibly, that we shall 
know those we have known. Admit that glorified saints, 
unknown before, have been known in their distinct indi- 
viduality, and their very names familiarly called, by saints 
in an inferior state, and no reason can be given why saints, 
when exalted to the perfection of heaven, will not recognise 
their old familiar friends and relations. 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 117 



By wliat means the apostles became acquainted with the 
prophets is not revealed. They heard Christ ^^ speah of 
his decease to be accomplished at Jerusalem," and in the 
conversation may have heard him address them under their 
proper names, and in this way learned who these celestial 
personages were. It matters not ; the fact of their personal 
identification is all we deem important to the argument. 

8. Christ in his glorified humanity. 

Often have holy men in this life, in imagination, flown 
past the pearly portals and the shining company of the 
angelic and ransomed orders, and endeavored to distinguish 
the Son of Grod "in the glory which He had with the 
Father before the world began /' but they have wandered 
in vain in the fields of light for the sublime reality, content 
with the ineffable charm that mysteriously attracted them 
to his presence. Oppressed with a sense of intellectual 
weakness, they never could have indulged the hope that 
they should see Him and know Him in his glory, had he not 
in his own person, in extraordinary revelations of himself, 
given them the most indubitable evidence that, in the future 
state, they should distinguish Him from all the hosts of God, 
whatever may be the circumstantial glory of his person. 

He appeared unto Moses in the flaming bush, and wrought 
two wonderful miracles to encourage him to approach and 
converse with him, and receive his messages : G-en. iv. And 
when " the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and 
the cloud covered it six days, and the sight of the glory of 
God was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the 
eyes of the children of Israel,'' Moses only was permitted 
to go "into the midst of the cloud, and was in the mount 
forty days and forty nights:" Gen. xxiv. 16-18. And 
Moses was so much encouraged, that he uttered the boldest 
prayer that ever fell from mortal lips : " I beseech thee, 
show me thy glory;" which God granted so far as to put 



118 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



him '^ in a cleft of the rocks, and cover him with his hand 
while he passed/' and revealed unto him the retiring splen- 
dors of his essential divinity: Gen. xxxiii. 18-23. He 
appeared unto Daniel, by the river Hiddekel, " clothed in 
linen, his loins girded with fine gold of Uphas, and his body 
like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, 
and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and feet like in 
color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the 
voice of a multitude/' and Daniel fell with his "face toward 
the ground," and was divested of "strength" and "breath," 
till the divine "hand touched" him and raised him "upon 
his knees and the palms of his hands," and the divine voice 
encouragingly said, " Daniel, man greatly beloved, stand 
upright, fear not: peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be 
strong," and Daniel was strengthened, and said, " Let my 
lord speak on ; for thou hast strengthened me :" Dan- x. 
Daniel was the John of the Old Testament. 

John was the Daniel of the New Testament.^ On Mount 
Tabor, when the voice proceeded from the shechinal cloud, 
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear 
ye him," the " disciples" — and John was one of them — "fell 
on their faces, and were sore afraid," till "Jesus came and 
touched them, and said. Arise, and he not afraid:^' Matt, 
xvii. 5-7. And again, in Patmos, Christ appeared unto 
John, " in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, clothed 
with a garment down to the foot, and girt about with a 
golden girdle, and his head and hairs white like wool, as 
white as snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet 
like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his 
voice as the sound of many waters, and in his right hand 
seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeding a sharp two- 
edged sword, and his countenance as the sun shining in his 
strength;" and John "fell at his feet as dead," and Christ 
^'laid his hand ujpon him, and said, Fear not, I am he that 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 119 



liveth, and was dead," Jesus: Kev. i. 12-18. And when 
soon after John saw him again, proceeding from the open- 
ing heavens, ^'^ seated on a white horse," though ^' his eyes 
were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, 
and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp sword, and the 
armies in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in 
fine linen, white and clean," he was not afraid, for he heard 
him '' called Faithful and True," /^ The Word of dod," and 
saw that " he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood," 
and that " on his vesture was written, KING- OF KINGS, 
AND LORD OF LORDS :'' Rev. xix. 11-16. And he 
recognised Him on whose bosom he had leaned, about whom 
he had written so much, and whom he loved so much. 
And so Christ will reveal himself to his saints in the future 
state, when he shall lay aside all the appendages of terror 
and battle, and appear in the robes of grace and glory. No 
wonder John exclaimed, ^'Beloved, it doth not appear what 
we shall be : but we know that when he shall appear, we 
shall be like him : for ive shall see him as he is:" 1 John 
iii. 2. John had seen his glory on the mount, but then it 
was partially obscured by the cloud, and he was not then 
like him ; he had seen him twice in Patmos, but he was not 
then like him ; but when he is like him, he shall see him as 
he is, and consequently shall know him in his glorified 
humanity amid the splendors of his infinite and eternal 
majesty. 

The individuality of Christ's glorious body will be as 
clearly distinguished on Mount Zion as it was on Mount 
Tabor, or as the bodies of Moses and Elias were at his side. 
The enshrined divinity, in its entrancing radiation, did not 
raise the body of Christ above the knowledge of his pro- 
phets and apostles. Whatever may be the exaltation of 
Christ's glorious body above what it was in the transfigura- 
tion, or in Patmos, it must be known as the identical body 



120 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



of Clirist; its identity can never be absorbed by the essential 
and transcendent glory of the Godhead. The apocalyptic 
angel, standing in the midst of the dazzling sun, was not 
more distinct to the eye of John, than the body of Christ 
^vill be in the essential glory of God to the eyes of all the 
saints and angels in heaven; and, like the sun, which we 
distinguish from every orb in the heavens, the Lamb of 
God, who is the light of the New Jerusalem, will be dis- 
tinguished from every orb that shines in the moral expanse 
of eternity. 

By his own peculiar glory he will reveal himself to all 
the hosts of God, to all eternity. Every saint upon his 
entrance into heaven will immediately know him, as easily 
and as naturally as we lift our eyes, and follow the light of 
day to the sun whence it issued ; — will know him by the 
superior splendor of the place which he occupies; by the 
halo of glory around his head; by the robes of divinity 
around his form; by the direction of every radiant aiid 
enraptured eye to him on the throne ; by the homage of the 
encircling orders and ranks of all created and holy intelli- 
gences ; by the reflected splendors of the sea of glass, and 
the rivers of pleasure, and the mansions of glory, and the 
streets of the eternal city, and forms of the shining ones, 
and every thing else in the boundless and eternal universe ; 
by the divinity in the tenderness of his eye, and in the 
sweetness of his smile, and in the melody of his voice, and 
in the serenity of his countenance, and in the majesty of his 
demeanor, and in the glory of his body, and in the command 
to the angels to make way for your approach to him, and in 
the welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord,'' and in the presentation 
of the crown, and sceptre, and palm, and harp, and kingdom, 
and robes of glory, and in the enthronement at his side, and 
in the charm of his presence, — by the divinity in all these, and 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 121 



in every thing else expressive of his Wended manhood and 
Godhead. 

The evidences of the God-man shall shine out from his 
humanity in his glory, as they did from his humanity in 
his humiliation. He was known at the wedding in Cana; 
and he will be known at the marriage-supper in the New 
Jerusalem, when ^^a great multitude, as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, shall say, 
Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us 
be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him.^' He was 
known when he was "a. man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief;" he will be known when he wipes ^'all tears 
from every eye, and sorrow and sighing shall flee'^ forever 
from his presence. He was known when he had '' not 
where to lay his head," nor money enough to pay his tax, 
and obtained it from the mouth of a fish as the revenue of 
old ocean to her kingj he will be known when seated upon 
the throne of eternity, and receiving the revenue of praise 
and homage from all the ransomed and angelic hearts in the 
universe. He was known when he blasted the fig-tree that 
failed to satisfy his hunger, and also when he magnified a 
few loaves and fishes to feed vast multitudes; he will be 
known when he distributes large and thrifty meals of im- 
perishable bread to the countless multitudes of his saints 
and angels. I He was known when he walked on the waves 
of the storm-tossed sea, and calmed the blustering winds to 
summer breezes and the tumultuous billows to summer 
ripples ; he will be known as he walks with his saints upon 
" the sea of glass," and down the green and flowery margins 
of the ceaseless-rolling rivers of pleasure. / He was known 
when he healed the sick, and cured the lame and halt and 
blind and deaf and dumb, and raised the dead, and cast out 
devils; he will be known when he gives the bloom, and 

beauty, and vigor, and glory, and eternal freedom, to the 

11 



122 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



cliildren of immortality. He was known in the humble 
dwellings and cottages of his friends in Judea; he will be 
known in his blessed visits to his saints in their mansions 
of glory in the city of God and angels. He was known on 
his way to Jerusalem, when the little children cried out, 
'^Hosanna to him that cometh in the name of King David I" 
and the rocks seemed impatient to break their lasting silence 
with a wild and terrible praise; he will be known when 
every harp and voice in heaven shall sound his praise, as 
the sound of "many waters'' and the peal of "great 
thunders." He was known in his teachings, for "he spake 
as never man spake/' he will be known still by his teach- 
ings, for he will speak as never angels heard. He was 
known in Gethsemane, for "an angel strengthened himj" 
he will be known in the celestial Eden, for angels shall 
worship him. He was known in the seamless garment; he 
will be known in the robes of glory. He was known on the 
cross, between two thieves, for one of them called him 
"Lord," and asked to be remembered in his "kingdom;" 
he will be known on his throne, amid the essential glory of 
the Father and the Spirit on either hand. He was known 
in his death, with the thorns on his head, and the nails in 
his hands and feet, for the earth shook, and the rocks broke, 
and the sun fled, and the heavens shuddered, and graves 
opened, and the centurion cried out, "Truly this man was 
the Son of God," and the terrified multitude " smote upon 
their breasts," and hurried down the trembling mount; he 
will be known by the very scars the thorns and nails have 
left, and the "crown of many stars," and the "new heavens 
and new earth," and "all things" made "new," and the 
etei'nal quiet of nature, and the "honor and glory of kings 
aiid nations" laid at his feet, and his "name on the fore- 
heads" of his saints, and the "river of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of his throne," and "the tree of life," with its 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 123 



"twelve manner of fruits," ou "both sides of the river/^ and 
his glory in its strength, and the bliss of his saints in his glorj, 
and the influence of his death throughout his immeasurable 
dominions. He was known in his resurrection, for death 
and hell and wicked men could not hold him, and his dis- 
ciples saw him, and a cloud of angels conducted him into 
heaven, and the light of immortality flashed, and has ever 
been flashing, from his opened sepulchre, over into eternity; 
he will be known in the numberless forms of beauty and 
perfection gathered from the burial of a thousand ages, and 
in their thrilling triumphs over death and hell and wicked 
men, and their harmonious concerts with the wheeling 
throngs, and shining orders, and adoring powers, and bend- 
ing cherubs, and hymning seraphs, and bowing thrones, and 
shouting angels, and countless millions, on every hand, 
and every one more enraptured with the divinity in his 
resurrection and in its fruits than with the divinity in 
creation. 

It would seem to the natural man that, in the humiliation 
of Christ, the glory of the Godhead was absorbed in his human- 
ity ; and so it would seem in his exaltation his humanity has 
been absorbed in his glory. But no; faith ss^w his divinity 
in his humiliation ; and so opeii vision will see his humanity in 
his glory. As his humanity was stamped with the impression 
of his divinity, so his divinity will shine out in the brightest 
efl"ulgence in glory. In both cases the humanity retains its per- 
fect identity. The seamless garment shone like light on 
Tabor; and his celestial apparel will not mantle his human- 
ity in mystery on Zion. The martyred Stephen, through 
the opened heavens, beheld "the Son of God standing on 
the right hand of God,^' and knew him; for he prayed, 
^'- Lord JesuSj receive my spirit. As the sun in his meridian 
strength sometimes wanes away into a total eclipse, but 
shines out again in undiminished splendor, and is greeted 



124 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



by the world as the same sun^ so the Sun of righteousness, 
that shone with a dazzling resplendence till it sunk in the 
bloody eclipse on Calvary, shone out again in undiminished 
lustre, and will ever be recognised, quenchless and un- 
changed, in the eternal heavens. As well be in the cloud- 
less light of day without seeing the sun, as in heaven with- 
out seeing and knowing Jesus. 

There is another view of this great subject, which 
strengthens our argument. The union of the mind with 
the body is mysterious; and yet it is wonderful how the 
mind expresses every phase of itself through the medium of 
the countenance, the eye, and the tones of the voice. The 
same may be rationally said of Christ. The union of the 
divinity with the humanity in him- is probably the greatest 
mystery of the works of God ; and yet it is an astonishing 
fact that his divinity expressed itself through the medium 
of his humanity. We see the essential Godhead localized 
nowhere else in the universe but in the humanity of Christ; 
that is, of nothing else of mind and matter in the universe 
constituting an essential element; and from that humanity 
the divinity will never be withdrawn. ^'In him dwelt ail 
the fulness of the Godhead bodily.'^ The divinity, it is 
true, is omnipresent, and we must make excursions through 
the universe to see God everywhere; but in the humanity 
of Christ we see and know where the entire Godhead is. It 
is the greatest mystery, and the most glorious fact, in the 
universe. Here and there, everywhere in the amplitude 
of creation of mind and matter, we may see this and that 
indication or expression of the Godhead — his justice, his 
wisdom, his power, his holiness, his love, his wrath, his 
majesty, his sovereignty; but in the humanity of Christ we 
see the Godhead itself embodied and residing. 
"Here the whole Deity is known." 
Besides, the divinity is present with the humanity of 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 125 



Christ, as it is present with no other created thing in tiie 
universe and in eternity. There is a bond — I know not 
what it is — that binds the Grodhead to the humanity of 
Christ, that binds the Grodhead to nothing else in the uni- 
verse and in eternity. The Godhead resides everywhere 
else, and in every thing else, distinct from and independent 
of every thing else, as Preserver and Governor; but, while 
the humanity and divinity of Christ are distinct and inde- 
pendent elements, and, in the nature of things, can never 
be confounded with each other or transmuted the one into 
the other, they exist together in such intimate connection as 
to constitute the one being, the God-Man. Ten thousand 
worlds, with their inhabitants, might be struck from exist- 
ence, and yet the relation of the Godhead to creation would 
remain the same; but the humanity of Christ could not be 
destroyed without dissolving the bond — I know not what it is 
— that exalts the humanity of Christ to immediate association 
with the Godhead. Not that the essential divinity would 
hereby in any way be effected : not at all; but the profoundest 
and most intimate union of the Godhead possible with any 
thing that is finite would be destroyed. Dissolve this union, 
and the humanity of Christ, however exalted in the scale of 
creation it might remain, if it could exist at all, would not 
exist as a proper object of worship; but such is its union 
with the indwelling divinity that it is an object of worship 
equal with the indwelling divinity. Neither men nor angels 
can now know Christ ''after the flesh/' — that is, his humanity 
cannot now be known as we know ordinary humanity; and 
those who regard his humanity in this light fall infinitely 
short of the proper estimation of it. True, his humanity, 
though associated with the divinity, retains all the essential 
elements of ordinary humanity; but by the indwelling di- 
vinity it is — how, I know not— invested with divine dignity, 

majesty, and glory. This is the mystery of mysteries ! 

11* 



126 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



Herein is wisdom ! ^' Herein is love V In a word, such is 
tlie union of the divinity with the humanity in Christ, that 
it is impossible to worship the humanity without worship- 
ping the divinity; impossible to see the humanity in its 
glory without beholding the clearest, brightest, and most 
perfect expression or manifestation of the Grodhead itself. 
From nothing else in the universe is the essential indwelling 
Godhead itself seen beaming out, for every thing else in the 
universe is seen and known in the expression or beaming out 
of its own nature as God made it; and so expresses itself sls 
God made it. But the humanity of Christ expresses the 
indwelling God himself With the profoundesfe conviction 
and reverence, we maintain that such is the union of divinity 
with the humanity of Christ, that when we shall see the 
humanity of Christ we shall see God himself shining in it; 
and, in a qualified sense, we shall say of his humanity, that 
is God. No wonder he is called the ^'fairest among ten 
thousand and altogether lovely;" for among "the tea thou- 
sand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands" of 
the countless orders and ranks of holy intelligences, He will 
be recognised and worshipped as God. 

The universe is filled with light and loveliness. We ex- 
plore and examine it all, but see and hear and love God 
himself nowhere and in nothing but in the humanity/ of 
Christ. We rove through millions of millions of worlds, 
but they reflect the glor^ of God. We may behold as many 
orders of holy intelligences as worlds, and millions millions 
more, and be wellnigh dazzled by their magnificence ; but 
they yet are not God. In the loftiest spirits in creation we 
may see intense holiness shining in their eye, and in their 
smile intense love beaming; and in their voices we may 
hear tones of softness, sweetness, and grandeur, that awaken 
emotions and sentiments in the soul never known before ; 
but these are the holiness, and love, and voices, of angels ; 



FACTS OP SCRIPTURE. 12' 



as yet we have not seen and heard God himself — but we 
long to do it. In the flowers^ in the fields, in the groves, in 
the hills and the mountains, in the rivers and the ocean, in 
the clouds, in the serene blue heavens, in the moon and the 
sun and the illimitable expanse of stars, we see how God 
thought ; but God himself as yet is neither seen nor heard. 
We walk through the eternal city, and we have seen, if it 
was possible to have seen, every thing in-it but the humanity 
of Christ, and everything — the whole city — reflects the glory 
of God; but I worship nothing, and with nothing am I satis- 
fied, for in nothing do I see God himself. But the human- 
ity of Christ appears; there is God himself in that humanity. 
In his voice God speaks; in his eye God looks; his is the 
smile of God; in his countenance is the majesty of God : 
He is God. If the union of divinity with humanity made 
the person of Christ a divine person, — if this union invested 
his blood and death with a peculiar glory and infinite merit 
— and it did all this, — then the same union is the basis on 
which all the expressions of his humanity in heaven are the 
expressions of the indwelling God himself God himself 
may draw the line of distinction in the union between the 
divinity and humanity, but no angel in eternity, we be- 
lieve, can do it; and so we believe no saint or angel in 
eternity will ever be able to distinguish the humanity from 
the divinity in the tones of the voice, or the expressions of 
the countenance, of Christ in heaven; for, though he be heard 
and seen as man, he will be heard and seen as God. God 
himself is an essential part of Christ. In the most gorgeous 
insect, in the bright face of the sun, in the pure nature of 
the seraph, we see God mirrored; but in the humanity of 
Christ we see God himself as he is. In the songs of che- 
rubim we hear praise to God ; but in the voice of Jesus we 
hear the voice of God. In the homage of cherubim we see 
worship paid to God; but in the humanity of Christ we see 



128 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



the God who is worshipped. In the holiness of angels we 
see a nature derived from God; but in the humanity of 
Christ, though itself derived, we see the God of holiness 
himself residing. In every thing else we see what God has 
done ; but in the humanity of Christ we see the Creator 
himself reposing enthroned in the glory of his universe. 
The idea of God, though infinitely belaw the full compre- 
hension of the great subject, we can distinguish most clearly 
from ideas of every thing else in the universe; but that idea 
is expanded to the utmost possible amplitude, clearness, and 
definitenesS; in the celestial vision of God in the humanity 
of Christ. 

Once more. The entire humanity, mind and body, and 
the entire Godhead, '^the fulness of Godhead,'' constitute 
Christ. There is an inexplicable and ineffable union be- 
tween the three distinct persons of the Godhead, each sub- 
stantially divine. One of these persons is the eternal Son. 
That Son associated himself with the entire humanity. 
What then must be the union and communion of his hu- 
manity with his divinity ! In his divinity is the entire 
Godhead ; and hence the union and communion of his hu- 
manity must be with the entire Godhead. I cannot grasp 
the great subject; it is too deep, doubtless, for any finite com- 
prehension. But this much may be said : the Godhead com- 
munes with the human mind, — that is, the sensibilities, will, 
and intellect of Christ, so far as the essential, infinite, stnd 
exhaustless love, and every other attribute of the Godhead, 
can be manifested to the saints. Next: the human mind 
of Christ, in such communion with the Godhead, which is 
short only, and yet infinitely, of the ineffable communion 
which exists between the three persons of the Godhead, 
through his glorified body, manifests, as far as it can be 
done to finite minds, the entire Godhead to his ransomed 
and angelic family. How exalted the human mind and 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 129 



body of Clirist in such communion ! What the nature or 
the manner of this communion is I know not; it is not, 
however, that sort of inspiration by which the Holy Spirit 
communicated immediately to the minds of prophets and 
apostles the will of Grod; for the union of the eternal Son 
with humanity is probably as great a mystery as the eternal 
filiation of the Son; and hence the communion of divinity 
with the human mind of Christ may be as profound a mys- 
tery as the communion existing between the three persons 
of the Godhead. What, then, must be the out-beaming of 
the indwelling Godhead from the humanity of Christ to the 
spiritual vision of the saints in heaven ! 

Our conclusions are the following. The union of the 
Godhead with the humanit}'' in Christ will be the basis of 
knowing God himself more clearly than through any other 
medium. In this union the identity of Christ's humanity 
will continue perfect and be most clearly cognizable. In- 
deed, the more clearly v/e shall see God himself in the hu- 
manity of Christ, the more clearly we shall identify that hu- 
manity. Consequently, as we shall know Christ himself in 
his glorified state whom we have not seen, we shall know 
also all his saints whom we have not seen; because, first, 
their bodies will be fashioned after his ; secondly, the in- 
dwelling pure spirit can no more affect the identity of their 
bodies than the indwelling Godhead can affect the identity 
of Christ's body, especially as the glory of finite spirits is 
infinitely inferior to the glory of the Godhead ; and thirdly, 
as the Godhead itself, in its divine identity, is seen through 
the medium of Christ's humanity, though not fully compre- 
hended, and never can be, it is incontestible that the saints, 
through the medium of their glorified bodies, will manifest 
or shine out respectively in their own individuality. That 
is, as the union of the Godhead with the humanity of Christ 
will not destroy the identity of that humanity, — as God him- 



130 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



self, the great and only spiritual standard of pure spirits in 
the universe, will be more clearly seen and known in tl.e 
glorified humanity of Christ than in any thing else, — and as 
the glorified body of Christ will be the standard for the 
bodies of all the saints in heaven, — therefore, the bodies 
of the saints, in union with their pure and exalted spirits, 
and in the resemblance to Christ's glorified body, will retain 
their identity, and though these manifest themselves in their 
spiritual identity and in their resemblances to the divine 
Original. To know the Grodhead in the humanity of Christ, 
and the humanity of Christ in its union with the Grodhead, 
is indubitable ground from which to infer that we shall know 
the bodies of saints that resemble the body of Christ, and 
the spirits of the saints that resemble God himself. This is 
arguing from the greater to the less; and the argument refers 
to all tlie saints we have not known. And the argument is 
rendered complete when it is applied to those we have 
known. For if, as above, we shall know those we have not 
known, we shall, upon the same principles, know those we 
have known. 

4. The visions of John in the Apocalypse. 

" And they sung a new song, saying. Thou art worthy to 
take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast 
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of 
every kindred, and tongue, sluS. people, and nation:" Rev. v. 
9. How could the saints say this of themselves unless thoy 
remembered definitely their condition on earth, and were 
known as so redeemed ? In their song they say who they 
are and whence they came; and hence they must have 
recognised each other. 

'^ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under 
the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of 
God and for the testimony which they held. And they 
cried with a loud voice, saying. How long, Lord, holy and 



FACTS OF SCRIPTURE. 131 



true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that 
dwell on the earth ? And it was said unto them, that they 
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants 
also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, 
should be fulfilled :'' Kev. vi. 9—11. Here is no parable, as 
in the case of the rich man and Lazarus. First, John de- 
finitely distinguishes the martyrs. Secondly, the martyrs 
remember their enemies who still dwell on earth. Thirdly, 
their relation to th^ saints on earth remains unbroken, and 
interest in their welfare continues unabated, for the saints 
on earth are called '■'' \ki^\x fellow-servanU and their hreth- 
renJ' Fourthly, when their fellow-servants and brethren 
^'should be killed as they were," they also would be known 
as martyrs. Thus, if John knew the martyrs, and the 
martyrs knew their enemies, and the martyrs felt such a 
deep interest in their fellow-servants and brethren still on 
earth, did not these martyrs, and their fellow-servants and 
brethren, know or recognise one another when they met in 
heaven ? If unto us, as was unto John, a door were opened 
in heaven, and we were inspired with the spirit John had, 
would we not also see and know the Tnartyrs? They then 
are known in heaven as martyrs, and must forever be known 
aPmartyrs by all in heaven. In a word, if John knew the 
martyrs in heaven, and they felt such an interest in their 
brethren on earth, did not the martyrs themselves knoio one 
another in heaven? 

''And one of the elders answered, saying unto me. What 
are these arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 
And I said unto him. Sir, thou knowest. And he said to 
me. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes, and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb :'' Rev. vii. 13, 14. First, the saints, 
'' a great multitude, which no man could number, of all 
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tonrjues,^' are known 



132 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



to the elder, himself an exalted saint. Secondly, he in- 
forms John who they are, and thus John becomes acquainted 
with those whom he had not known. Thirdly, the elder 
knew John; whether he had known him before or not is 
immaterial. Now, if John and the elder (formerly acquainted 
with each other or not is immaterial) knew each other, 
and if the elder himself knew the saints, and informed John 
who they were, it is incontestable that the saints themselves 
knew each other. Recognition, therefore, is necessarily 
involved. 

To conclude : from the knowledge we shall have of the 
angelic universe of being, and from the facts contained in 
Scripture, we infer that we shall know those we have 
not known; and, therefore, we shall recognise those we have 
known. That is, as we shall know those we have not known, 
which is equivalent to recognising them; we must know 
those we have known, which is recognising them. 

We hasten to the most interesting part of our subject — 
the exaltation and perpetuation of particular friendships in 
heaven. 



PART III. 



EXALTATION AND PERPETUATION OF PARTICULAR 

FRIENDSHIPS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 

We cannot see how any one who carefully considers the 
arguments in favor of future recognition can rationally deny 
the doctrine. But whether particular friendships shall 
exist, or we shall cherish a special regard for our friends 
and relations in heaven, is quite another question, and de- 
mands a separate and careful consideration. Most cordially 
do we maintain the affirmative, and our arguments are the 
following, the first of which is from reason. 

Look on the boundless universe of mind and matter. The 
soul instinctively anticipates endless variety, and expects to 
find it on every hand. Inexplicable as is the fact, there is 
no hope in the soul that in its endless being it will be fully 
satisfied with any single thing in the universe but God. 
And there is another fact, equally inexplicable. The soul, 
when once it knows and loves any thing, looks not for its 
like, in every respect, in any thing else; but, retaining 
possession of it, passes on in diligent search of other con- 
genial objects — every step in its endless progress retaining 
singularly vivid, tender, and distinct impressions of all it 
ever knew and loved before, to be revived as occasion shall 
require in its future history. 

Again: when once we possess any desirable object, we 
are unwilling to part with it till we have exhausted all its 

12 133 



134 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



excellence; and if its excellence is considered inexhaustible, 
we desire to possess it forever. To be deprived of it would 
be regarded as an inconceivable loss, whatever else in num- 
ber and in excellence might remain to us in the universe 
and in eternity. And so, if we could imagine every created 
thing in the universe except ourself resolved into one thing, 
or every thing in the universe except ourself and one thing 
annihilated, it is easy to see that an immense and immeasur- 
able blank would ensue. Indeed, if we could imagine ourself 
as existing alone with God in eternity, it is easy to see, that, 
in the absence of all objects of the subordinate affections, a 
profound sense of loneliness would ensue; and, in God's 
immediate presence, we would feel a new joy if he were to 
assure us that he would restore to us all those objects. In 
a word, every individual thing is stamped with its own 
identity so clearly and distinctly, that, when once fully 
known, it cannot be confounded with any thing else in the 
universe. Thus, it seems, the soul is destined to an infinite 
variety of knowledge, and an infinite variety of subjects of 
love, in the progress of its future being. It is obvious a uni- 
verse of endless variety is required to fulfil this noble destiny. 
And what have we? Just what we should have to keep 
the soul in continued motion — namely, endless variety. In 
nature this variety is first perceptible. Take, for example, 
the songs of the grove. We distinguish a thousand varie- 
ties. Some birds have a single note, and each a different 
note from the rest. Others have few and simple strains, 
and no two of this class alike. Some are complex, and 
monotony is only occasional; some. are singularly soft and 
sweet, and others loud and clear, and others shrill and 
piercing, and others wild and startling, and others harsh 
and discordant, and others rich and majestic. Some are 
tender and pathetic, and others joyous and lively, and others 
subdued and plaintive, and others serene and pleasant. All 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 135 



have their signals of alarm, their notes of distress, their 
strains of delight, and their tones of affection. And all are 
as varied in their plumage, as they are in their songs. 
Take another example — the flowers of the field. From the 
lowly violet to the lofty magnolia — the form, the size of the 
flower, the petals, the tints on the petals, and the shading 
of the tints — variety is endless ; and we know not where to 
commence, nor where to end. And the fragrance is as varied 
as the flowers. Take another example — the fruits of the 
earth. Every clime and every season has its own produc- 
tions, each with its distinct flavor; and the variety is almost 
endless and nameless. Take other examples — the animals 
of the forest, the insects of the air, the fishes of the sea, 
and the shells of the shore. The most splendid intellectual 
abilities have been engaged in arranging these in orders, and 
genera, and species, and varieties, and anomalies; and yet 
no naturalist has ever announced that he had reached the 
utmost limits of distinction or fully explored the bounds of 
nature. 

And so in science, which is the interpretation of the laws 
of nature. Each science has its own laws and its own dis- 
tinctions; and though for ages new facts and new prin- 
ciples have been discovered in every department of science ; 
and some new science, ever and anon, is constructed, and 
occasionally some mighty intellect, as that of Newton, in the 
case of gravity, discovers a general law that enlarges the 
boundaries of human knowledge, yet man continues his 
search for new subjects of analysis and classification, hoping 
to discover complexity in simplicity, and believing that 
endless variety is contained in the harmony and unity of 
things. 

And so in art, which is the application of the laws and 
principles of science. Here the simple, the complex, the 
beautiful, the elegant, the gorgeous, the grand, the useful, 



136 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



we say nothing of the useless, — are crowded into social life 
with a rich and a boundless profusion, and the field of in- 
vention is supposed to be endless. Thus man, commencing 
with nature, makes his path through science and art, and 
returns to himself; a splendid journey, truly, if man be con- 
sidered as merely on the border-land of being, but mourn- 
ful, if all this variety concentrates ultimately upon the 
moment of existence he spends in the companionship of 
earth. 

But we go a step farther. We do not know that the topic 
on which we have entered has obtained ordinarily more 
than a glance ; and there is something in it so intimately 
connected with our subject, that we shall bestow upon it 
a careful attention. While the senses of man find endless 
variety in material things, and every sense has a thousand 
different objects, there is another world in which we live, — 
the spiritual, — ^which is wholly its own, in which nothing 
material exists, and in which variety is as endless as in the 
material world. The songs of birds and the birds, the tints 
of flowers and the flowers, the leaves of the forest, the ani- 
mals of the field, the insects of the air, the fishes and shells 
of the sea, the minerals of the earth, — from the rudest to 
the most polished and beautiful, — and the forms, and faces, 
and manners, and tastes, of men, are not more varied than 
the characteristics of mind in the spiritual world. And 
though sometimes, in the natural world, as in forms and 
colors, differences approximate so near to each other in re- 
semblance as to render it impossible to draw the line of dis- 
tinction, and yet difference essentially exists, so in the 
spiritual world there are endless peculiarities of moral and 
intellectual character, which will be more easily distinguish- 
able in the heavenly state than peculiarities of matter are in 
the present state; because then the power of discrimination 
will be unimpeded by the peculiarities and appendages of 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 137 



intervening, gross matter, and the debility of the intellectual 
constitution. 

The substantial nature of the human mind is universally 
the same ; but that there will be endless peculiarities of an 
intellectual, moral, and social nature, there can be no doubt, 
because the circumstances or history of no two persons in 
time can be precisely the same; and so the development of 
the substantial nature of no two persons in time can be pre- 
cisely the same. Endless differences will consequently be 
perceptible. Every one in heaven will have his own history, 
his own character, and his own reward. 

The plain allusions in Scripture to a difference of reward 
in heaven support this conclusion. Every saint in heaven 
bears with him a portion of the history of the world, laid 
up forever in the depths of his being. The saints of the 
patriarchal, prophetical, apostolical, and subsequent ages, ail 
have respectively some peculiarities by which they may be 
distinguished from one another, by which one patriarch may 
be distinguished from another, and one prophet from another, 
and one apostle from another, and one martyr from another, 
and one preacher of the gospel from another, and one saint in 
one age from another saint in another age, and one member of 
a family from other members of the same family. An infant 
will be distinguished from a patriarch or an apostle ; and so 
distinction will run through all the gradations from the infant 
to the patriarch. The weakest saint in any church will be 
distinguished from the strongest saint in that church; and so 
distinction will run through the universal churcb of Christ 
in all parts of the world and in all ages of time. Certain is 
it, that the law of works, and all its accompanying circum- 
stances, which entered into the primitive state of Adam and 
Eve, cannot enter into the history of any of their posterity, 
and hence the facts of their Jirst estate must distinguish them 

from all their posterity; and no one can rationally suppose 

12* 



138 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



that there will be no difference between the saints who lived 
in the dim light of the patriarchal dispensation and the saints 
who lived in the days of Christ and his apostles, or the saints 
who shall live in the meridian light of the millennium. 

As every age of time is distinguished by certain prominent 
leading characters, whose names are but the embodiments of 
the nature of the times in which they lived, and as every 
age is in fact but the totality of every individual character 
in it, certain it is that prominent and inferior characters, 
from the most exalted to the most obscure, must exist, each 
with its own peculiarities, in the future state. We have not 
the times and the miracles of Moses, nor the times and the 
miracles of Christ and his apostles, nor the times of Luther, 
or of Wesley, or of other reformers ; and hence the charac- 
ters of our times must have their own distinctive peculiari- 
ties. And as man is progressive, and each age and every 
individual in each age contributes something to the general 
result, it is incontestable that whatever share each individual 
has in this general result must enter into his very being 
and constitute his personal and distinct identity. Our age, 
our neighborhood, our family, our individual self, — all are 
taken up in the progress of things, and are assigned their 
relation, their distinctness, their separateness, in the revolu- 
tions of the world's history. The personal identity of the 
humblest and most obscure being of the human race cannot 
be destroyed without making a chasm in the history of man, 
and so far annulling the history of man. Every allotment 
of divine providence must have its representative; every 
man must give an account of Ms stewardship ; every man 
must answer for his deeds ; every man will have his own pe- 
culiar character. 

What a field here opens before our view ! Could we look 
into the books kept in heaven, we would see the character 
of every man that has hitherto lived fully portrayed, and 



THE ARGUMENT FR03I REASON. 139 



doubtless discover no two exactly alike or indistinguisliable. 
Take the whole circle of our friends and acquaintance : no 
two are alike in every particular; indeed, the most promi- 
nent diflferences exist among them. Take the family circle : 
no two members are exactly alike in mind or body, and they 
are all most easily distinguisbable one from another. But 
give us the knowledge of others we have of our friends and 
relations, and we can as easily distinguish each member of 
the whole human race as we can now distinguish one mem- 
ber of our own family from another. Now but very few of 
the millions of time are known to us, and all in heaven are 
removed from our sight; but when in that new world above, 
crowded with the saintly characters of all ages, it will be a 
distinct and ravishing employment to pass from character to 
character, around the entire circles of saints and angels, with 
the most exact discrimination and infallible certainty. 

There are endless original differences in our social nature 
in this life. Every man has one or more peculiarities of 
character which are more attractive to some than to others. 
That these are elements of corruption, and so will be dropped 
at death, we cannot believe; for they are effects of the mys- 
terious influence of initial grace, and accompany the indi- 
vidual through all the stages of mortal life, and distinguish 
his identity in our remembrance of him long after he has been 
laid in the grave. On the pages of ancient and modern his- 
tory, as well as in the Bible, we find portraitures of character 
drawn which have a peculiar charm for us, and which we 
have in some sense made our models, but which excite no 
more than an ordinary interest in others. The same is 
true of our contemporaries and of the social circle immedi- 
ately around us. Marked differences in natural abilities and 
constitutional temperament are observable in a family of 
children. These differences are occasions of congeniality 
and the basis of particular friendships. I may admire a 



140 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



man for his splendid talents and shining virtues, and yet not 
love him as much as I do one inferior to him in these re- 
spects, simply because he has not those amiable traits of 
social character which are congenial to me. The substantial 
differences in intellectual and social character, we maintain, 
will accompany the saints and be the basis of particular 
friendships in the future state, because no one, in transition to 
the future state, will lose any of the characteristics essential 
to his personal identity and the recognition of him there. 
Indeed, it is conceivable how I may regard some saints and 
angels as more exalted in heaven than my own particular 
friends and relations ; but it is inconceivable how I may love 
them with that peculiar love which I expect to cherish for 
my particular friends and relations. I know not what modifi- 
cation is required in order to annihilate from my social na- 
ture peculiar regards, or merge them into equal regards for 
the inhabitants of heaven; the speculation that I shall un- 
dergo such a modification is unfounded in Scripture, reason, 
and the nature of things. But I can clearly conceive how 
the happiness of heaven may be heightened by the perpetua- 
tion of particular friendships ; yea, how, in the flight of ages, 
I may form new friendships in heaven — a most intimate 
friendship with every saint and angel in heaven, which will 
but heighten the happiness of heaven, while it will not di- 
minish the intensity of old and particular friendships. And 
so the very law of particular friendships will enhance the 
happiness of the celestial country. The social characteris- 
tics on which are formed pious and particular friendships in 
this life will be unfolded and perfected in the future state. 
Redemption, we have said, will take up our social nature, 
along with every other department of our mental constitution, 
into the highest heaven for consummation. If we could 
imagine all in heaven reduced to a common level, it is ob- 
vious social affection is destined to a monotonous existence. 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 141 



In the history of this world, doubtless, the common bonds 
of evangelical love will eventually bind together the whole 
human race as the family of God. But this will not interfere 
with peculiar social regards. Why, then, should the union 
of the entire family of Grod interfere with particular friend- 
ships in heaven ? A change of heart does not interfere with 
particular friendships in this life ; why should a change of 
worlds, involving the exaltation of our social nature, inter- 
fere with them in the future state ? On earth, man is 
united by the common bonds of humanity; and yet this 
does not interfere with the love of country, nor does the love 
of country interfere with particular friendships. There are 
eternal ideas; and so there are eternal feelings and eternal 
friendships ; and you can no more destroy these feelings and 
friendships than you can modify or annihilate the sub- 
stantial nature and identity of the saints respectively. 

In a moral sense, it is true, there will be no difference 
among the saints in heaven. From the most exalted to the 
humblest saint there, the same moral perfection will prevail : 
that is, in all will exist perfect holiness and perfect humility. 
But these acquired perfections will not absorb and render 
indistinguishable differences in intellect and sensibility ; 
they will only render the more distinct and admirable those 
differences in intellect and sensibility which now constitute 
the personal identity of our friends and relations. The 
brighter the light, and the stronger the sight, and the more 
discriminating the judgment, the more distinct and complete 
is the cognition of an object; and so, when the peculiarities 
in the mental constitution of our friends and relations shall 
be lighted up by perfect holiness and adorned with perfect 
humility in heaven, they will appear to us lovely in the 
highest degree. 

Social affections involve peculiar regards. 

The Sadducean question, at this point, demands particu 



142 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



lar attention : whether the difference of the sexes extends 
to the future state of the saints ? We maintain that it will. 
The answer of Christ is sufficiently definite. While '^ mar- 
riage is honorable to all" in this life, there "will be no 
marrying or giving in marriage/^ but we shall be " as the 
angels of God/^ in the life to come. That is, the physical 
law of social life will be absorbed and lost in a retributive 
state. But this does not involve the annihilation of the 
inne7^ social relations and affections, — relations and affections 
of the soul, profoundly mysterious and ineffably tender, — 
which have their own laws and evidence, and which nothin<> 
but sin and the eternal curse of God can annihilate. The 
doctrine of mental identity requires the perpetuation of the 
consciousness of sex. Whatever may be the organization of 
the spiritual body, the consciousness of sex must remain as 
permanent as the spirit. The true idea of the resurrection 
requires it. The idea of man is twofold — male and female ; 
for thus was man created in the image of God. It is incon- 
ceivable how the spirit can lose the consciousness of sex. 
The highest state of sanctification in this life does not affect 
this consciousness; and it is certain our simple elevation 
into the region of pure spirit cannot affect it, unless we shall 
be essentially different in the future state from what we 
are here, which no one can rationally pretend will be the 
case. Distinct will be the idea of sex in the consciousness 
of spiritual personality in every saint in heaven. Let it 
be carefully observed that this spiritual consciousness of sex 
lies in the very essence of mind, and refers not merely to 
the present physical constitution ; and hence, we argue, the 
consciousness of sex can never be obliterated from the mind. 
The present physical order, it is true, extends not beyond 
this life; but the spiritual constitution will abide forever. 
Death terminates the present physical order, and the body 
in the resurrection will be adapted to a new order; and, 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 143 



-wbatever that body may be, it will be re-entered by the 
spirit retaining the consciousness of its identity, that is, that 
it has still abiding correlative affections, which implies the 
idea of sex. 

For example : David, the bereaved father^ hoped to go to 
his sainted child. If he did not believe that he would have 
the comfort of a father on meeting his child in heaven, 
whatever might be the nature of the spiritual body in the 
resurrection, he would have received the announcement of 
the death of his child as an ordinary event. And if, on 
meeting his child in heaven, he did not have the comfort of 
2. father y then he misinterpreted his social nature — a falli- 
bility utterly inconsistent with inspiration. David, there- 
fore, retains the consciousness of his identity as father, 
which implies the idea of sex. And so of the mother, when 
she meets her sainted child. And so of the sister, as in the 
case of Martha, when she meets her sainted hr other. And 
so of the ivife, when she meets her sainted hushand. And 
so around the entire circle of social relations. The idea of 
sex is contained in the indestructible nature of the human 
spirit. It is not only perfectly natural, then, but in accord- 
ance with inspiration, to anticipate future recognition upon' 
the spiritual basis of our social relations and affections. 
Blissful, too, in the highest and richest form, must be the 
spiritual reciprocities of man's social nature in heaven. 
There, while there '^is neither marrying nor giving in mar- 
riage," the former spiritual ties of our social nature, sancti- 
fied to the utmost intensity, unite the saints of the family 
circle in the tenderest and most intimate communion. That 
which was perishable, or had the least tinge of sense, has 
been dropped forever; the pure and spiritual substance, 
v/ith its correlative affections, remains and is perpetual. 

Every social affection has its own peculiar object. We 
hope to meet our parents as parents, and parents hope to 



144 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



meet their children as children, and so on. Certainly our 
parents will be known as our parents, and we expect to meet 
them as such; and we shall be known as their children, 
and they expect to meet us as such. We expect to meet our 
parents and children substantially the same in social nature as 
tbey were when we lost them. In all this, peculiar love is 
founded upon our social nature. Deny the existence of 
this peculiar love, and you strike out one of the richest 
sources of happiness in heaven. You divest bereavement 
of a sweetest cordial, life of an incentive to duty and resig- 
nation inferior only to the command of God, and heaven of 
an attraction surpassed only by the presence of Christ. 
The gospel becomes a system of stoicism, and man a stoic. 
Indeed, if we shall not meet our relations as such in heaven, 
then there is no reason why we should grieve for them any 
more at death than we do for others; no longer should we 
cherish any peculiar love for them, feel any peculiar grief at 
their death, or indulge any peculiar hope of meeting them 
again. This is a revolution of human nature, and earth 
becomes a desert, a boundless waste, bleak and barren, 
stripped of every green thing that now adorns our homes, 
and death itself will be a relief. 

G-od has made a mother's love the type of his own. Can 
a mother forget her child? Isa. xlix. 15. Shall the type 
have no relation to the heavenly state ? Oh, never, we be- 
lieve, can a mother express how much she loves her child, 
till she meets him in heaven ! Then only will the appro- 
priateness of the type be fully known. Do parents " know 
how to give good gifts" to their children on earth, and shall 
they not rejoice more than any other saints in heaven when 
they greet them before the throne ? Are children com- 
manded to " honor their father and mother^' on earth, and 
shall they not cherish a peculiar regard for them in hea- 
ven ? Do they not feel the deepest solicitude, and rejoice 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 145 



the most in the happiness of their children on earth, and 
will their delight not be enhanced when they meet them in 
heaven ? Who have done so much for us as our parents ? 
and for whom in heaven, except God himself, can we feel 
such a regard as for them ? What can compensate them for 
all their toil and sorrow and sacrifice through the life, and 
their pangs and anguish of soul at the death, of their chil- 
dren, but the rapture of the heavenly meeting, on which 
angels might pause and gaze in wonder ? If angels — an in- 
dependent order of intelligences — rejoice over the repentance 
of those for whom parents feel the deepest concern, what 
must be the joy of the parents themselves in the recognition 
and eternal salvation of their children in heaven ? Surely the 
parents must have a distinct and superadded joy. Or, 
which in some sense is the same thing, if parents rejoice 
over the salvation of those who are not their children, will 
they not rejoice, in a peculiar sense and in a higher degree, 
over the salvation of their children ? Amid the universal 
congratulations when ^' the whole family" of Grod assemble 
before him in heaven, what joy so intense, what satisfaction 
60 much like that of God himself, as the joy and satisfaction 
of parents as they clasp their children to their pure bosoms? 
Such scenes will be among the most radiant in the heavenly 
land. A mother's songs and shouts will be the most tender 
and touching in heaven. Her face will be the loveliest, and 
her smiles the sweetest, and her language the most expres- 
sive of sensibility, of all in heaven, except the face and 
smiles and language of Christ himself '■'■ JMother ! home ! 
and heaven !'^ — sweetest words that ever fell from mortal 
lips, except the name of ^' Jesus !" and in a mother's love 
and joy will all these ideas commingle in the recognition 
and embrace of her sainted children; yea, that love and joy 
will be heightened when she sees the image of Jesus in her 

children. The most tender scene in the humiliation and 

13 



146 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



compassion of Christ on earth is that of the child folded in 
his arms and pressed to his blessed bosom; and the sweetest 
smile imaginable upon his face in heaven will be that given 
to the mother, kneeling in adoring gratitude at his feet, 
with her seraph saint in her arms. *' Of such is the king- 
dom of heaven ;" and the most blissful consummation of this 
most blessed truth will be known by 'the mother in heaven. 
"Who can say that there will not be a chord in her harp and 
a strain in her song in no other harp or song in heaven, 
since there will be a love in her heart and a reason for her 
joy which no other heart or joy has in heaven ? She planted 
the germs whose fruit she now reaps. She saw the fountain 
unsealed in the heart of her child, directed the channel, and 
tinged the whole stream of mortal life with the sweetness 
which she now enjoys. Immeasurable is the extent of a 
mother's influence, incalculable is her responsibility, inde- 
scribable is her pious solicitude, and the recognition of her 
child in heaven will excite in her a joy known to no other 
saint before the throne. 

If it be objected that love to God will absorb all subordi- 
nate love, we reply that supreme love to Grod is not incon- 
sistent with equal love to our neighbor. Besides, the sacri- 
fice of social love is not required, unless it come in conflict 
with the love of Grod ; but surely such a conflict cannot exist 
in heaven, for God is ''all in all" in heaven. That is, all 
love that is founded in selfishness must perish ; but all love 
that has its basis in God is imperishable; for ''God is love.'' 
But the love of the sainted mother for her sainted child — 
and so of all other correlative affections — has its basis in 
God; for the love of God does not destroy, but purifies, 
sweetens, and perfects, social love, and therefore peculiar 
social affections are imperishable in heaven. They must 
exist so long as their objects exist: their objects are immor- 
tal in heaven ; and hence the love of a sainted and holy 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 147 



mother for her sainted and holy child can no more cease 
than she can cease to be or her child can cease to be ; and 
so of all other correlative affections and objects in heaven. 

Love is indestructible j 
Its holy flame forever burnetii ; 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth ; 
Too oft on earth a troubled guest, 
At times deceived, at times oppress'd, 
It here is tried and purified, 
Then hath in heaven its perfect rest. 
It soweth here in toil and care ; 
But the harvest-time of love is there. 
Oh ! when a mother meets on high 
The babe she lost in infancy, 
Hath she not then, for pains and feara. 

The day of wo, the watchful night. 
For all her sorrows, all her tears, 

An over-payment of delight ? 

So far from heaven being unfavorable to the perpetuation 
of particular friendships already formed, it will be the best 
place in the universe in which to form new ones. The forma- 
tion of new friendships will be a blessed privilege and employ- 
ment of the saints. There are gathered all the amiable and 
lovely characters that have adorned distant ages and different 
countries, whom we never could know, and many of whom we 
never could meet, in this world ; and with these it will be 
peculiarly delightful to form peculiar friendships. There 
the noblest and purest minds recorded in history, sacred 
and profane, are assembled; and with these we wish to be- 
come personally acquainted — for example, with Paul, and 
John, and Luther, and Wesley, and all the other illustrious 
leaders of the countless hosts of Israel, especially as the doc- 
trines they taught and the lives they lived have been the 
animating and sanctifying light that has illumined our path- 
way to eternity. The angels of Grod are there; and in this 
new and brilliant world of mind, doubtless, we shall find those 



148 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



peculiar qualities, and that agreement of tastes and suitable- 
ness of disposition, which will form the basis for new, pecu- 
liar, exalted, and perpetual friendships. Who can say that 
an agreement or congeniality of some sort is not made the 
basis of selecting guardian angels for the saints in their 
eventful probationary state, or that the older saints, or even 
infant saints, are not, on this very ground, now guardian 
spirits, commingling in the very household with which they 
are so familiar ! And then there are many, even in our own 
neighborhood and age, whom we would number among our 
dearest and most intimate friends, but whose friendship 
neither the brevity of our time nor our engagements here 
will permit us to cultivate ; which restrictions will be taken 
off in the future state. 

So long as there is ground to believe that we shall be ca- 
pable of peculiar friendships in heaven, — and we see not how 
it can ever be otherwise, — there is no reason why we should 
drop our former friendships or why we should not in end- 
less succession form new ones. It is conceivable how the 
exalted angels and saints cannot form an intimate and equal 
friendship with us in our present imperfect state ; but in us 
there is the pledge of a corresponding exaltation, which but 
defers the formation of the supposed friendship to the ma- 
turity of our being. The child may not be a suitable com- 
panion for the philosopher, though a sort of friendship may 
exist between them ; but the time may come when the child 
may be a philosopher too. 

'* That so, before the judgment-seat, 

Thougli changed and glorified each face, 
Not unremember'd we may meet, 
For endless ages to embrace." 

Entered already, as we believe all the good and holy of 
past ages have, into heaven, and advancing, as we see our 
dearest pious friends and relations are, to the same blissful 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON. 149 



and perfect place, and who have fixed their hearts upon 
meeting us there, — the belief that we shall rejoin them with 
indifference implies a change in our social nature which is 
justified neither by reason nor Scripture. 

Mind has affinities for mind in the present state; and 
these affinities attract together what we call our own conge- 
nial social circles, each member of which has his own pecu- 
liarities. There is the peculiar smile, or tone of voice, or 
feature, or form, or manner, that expresses the character of 
each of our friends and relations. These are but the external 
criteria of the being we love — the being that discloses itself 
in the smile, the tone, the eye, the manner. That friend 
has characteristics that no other human being has, and 
these are the very essence of the invisible, affectionate, spi- 
ritual being we love; for though the smile, the tone, the ex- 
pression of the eye, the manner, have all passed away in 
death, and the form has mouldered to dust in the grave, we 
believe that the loved and loving being still lives. Now, 
whatever may be the media through which that being may 
manifest or express itself in another state, we cannot fail to 
recognise it as one with which we were familiar and which 
we loved ; the media will be stamped with the characteristics 
of the original and unchanged spirit. God reveals himself 
through a thousand different media in nature, providence, 
and grace, and stamps them ail with the clearest indications 
of his own nature and regards for us. To the child of God 
the whole universe glows with the love of God. A friend or 
relation in the future state would not hold companionship 
with us through media unintelligible or that would conceal 
him from our knowledge. Whatever the media employed, 
he would give the most satisfactory 'disclosures of himself. 
The image of a friend I immediately recognise, whether it be 
impressed upon wax, or steel, or marble, or gold, or the can- 
vas; and the peculiar characteristics of a friend or relation 

13* 



150 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



in heaven I shall immediately recognise, whatever the me- 
dia with which they are associated. Among a thousand 
images on wax or the canvas I can immediately distinguish 
the one I know and love ; and so among all the hosts of 
heaven I shall recognise the peculiarities which distinguish 
the one I know and love from all the rest, and these will be 
the basis of peculiar, exalted, and perpetual friendship and 
love. Oh, blessed state ! 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON CONTINUED. 

Gratitude will be the basis of peculiar friendsbips ic 
the future state. Gratitude is one of the noblest virtues of 
the good man. We always desire to know our friend, and 
we are never satisfied till we know him and inform him of 
our appreciation of his kindness. The ingratitude of earth 
will have no existence in heaven. The noblest sentiment 
of the saints will be gratitude for the unspeakable gift and 
blessings of the Son of God; for redemption is the burden 
of the songs and shouts of saints, in which the angels de- 
light also to engage. Gratitude is the acknowledgment of 
the independence, justice, and boundless goodness, of God. 
But this does not exclude his friendly agents from the 
sphere of our gratitude. I may be grateful to God for the 
gift of a friend, and yet be grateful to the friend for acts of 
beneficence — grateful to God in the highest sense and to my 
friend in a subordinate sense. 

I cannot feel the sentiment of gratitude for one who has 
never done me a favor, though I may exercise toward him 
the holiest regards and cherish for him the highest admira- 
tion. He may have never known me or my wants; and I 
do not include him among my particular friends. But he 
who has done for me a favor excites a regard for him which 
I can feel for no one else. Among the millions of earth 
that man stands out as my friend, and I give him a promi- 
nence I give to no other human being. He may not be my 
relation ; and, though I may love my relations more than I 
love him, yet for this one act I feel grateful to him alone. 

That gratitude will be the ground of particular attach- 

151 



152 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



ments in the future state is incontestable. Every act that 
contributed to my earthly happiness and related to my eter- 
nal salvation^ called up vividly by memory in the future 
state, will be an occasion of gratitude and enter into my 
peculiar friendships. My former friends must have their 
reward; and a part of that reward is the pleasant recollection 
that they had assisted me for Christ's sake when all the 
world beside neglected me. Shall the remembrance of their 
kindness be lost in the sense that they did nothing more 
than their duty ? No more than my remembrance of their 
kindness can be lost in the conviction that they did only 
what was their duty. Shall I lose the particular regard 
which I cherished for them on earth ? No more than I can 
cease to be grateful to Grod that he gave me such friends. 
Shall I cherish the same regard for other saints which I 
cherish for them ? How so, when other saints never per- 
formed for me those kindnesses, since it was not in their 
power to do so? Shall no strain of gratitude for the ability 
to aid me enter into their praise, and none for aid extended 
to me enter into mine? Rather, if on earth they blessed 
God that they were able to assist me, and I that they did 
assist me, will we not mingle our praise before the throne 
for the spirit of giving and the spirit of receiving, and so 
rejoice together upon common ground — ground peculiar to 
us ? Sweet will be the fruit of such friendships. 

Besides, the proceedings of the judgment imply the per- 
petuation of gratitude as the ground of particular friend- 
ships in heaven. Reference by the Judge to " the least" of 
his "brethren" as the subjects of pious friendship implies 
a recognition on their part of their particular friends, and so 
must excite in them a peculiar regard for their benefactors, 
which must become the ground of a perpetual peculiar 
friendship. True, Christ regards pious kiudrjess extended 
to his "brethren" as shown to himself; but surely, if that 



THE ARGUMENT FROM REASON CONTINUED. 353 



kindness is the evidence of love to Christ, and is made the 
reason of perpetual divine friendship, it may he made the 
ground of subordinate peculiar friendships. What Christ 
is pleased to acknowledge as the reason of his eternal re- 
gards, his "brethren" must distinguish as a sufficient reason 
for their subordinate peculiar attachments. Christ asso- 
ciates his " brethren'^ with himself, and you can no more 
sever his " brethren" from their friends than you can sever 
him from the friends of his '^brethren." The pious kind- 
ness, then, of this life, becomes the ground of endless circles 
of peculiar friendships in heaven, all banded together by the 
common bonds of supreme grateful love to God and the 
Lamb. If it be said that gratitude to God will absorb all 
subordinate gratitude, we reply, that in the nature of things 
this cannot be, for the ground of gratitude to God for par- 
ticular kindnesses includes subordinate gratitude, just as the 
greater includes the less. ' 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 

The susceptibility for peculiar friendships exists in a hoi)' 
nature. We have seen that peculiar friendships may be 
founded and perpetuated on the original and endless differ- 
ences in our social nature, on the correlative relations of 
our social nature, and on the sentiment of gratitude; we 
now proceed to show that the susceptibility for peculiar 
friendships exists in a holy nature. In this our argument 
is carried to the highest degree of conviction, since we shall 
see, in the examples immediately to be adduced, peculiar 
friendships, moulded upon the principle of holiness and 
founded in spiritual love; and the conclusion will follow, 
that, unless holiness and spiritual love can be destroyed, pe- 
culiar friendships must be eternal, 

1. Christ had his favorite apostles — Peter, James, and 
John, — especially John. John was the friend around whom 
he threw the charms of his softest smiles, and into whose 
bosom he breathed the effusions of his richest love. He is 
emphatically and tenderly called " the disciple whom Jesus 
loved,'' and he was admitted to such an intimacy with the 
Saviour as to be permitted to "lean his head on his bosom." 
At his transfiguration he was allowed to be present with 
Peter and James. At his crucifixion he confided to his 
care the charge of his mother. On the island of Patmos, 
when he "fell as dead at his feet,'' with infinite benignity, 
tenderness, and love, he "laid his hand on him," and said, 
^^ Fear not" — Johiiy I am Jesus; and my love for you is 
greater than my glory which confounds you ; and he per- 
mitted him to see "the great city of Jerusalem," and "the 

154 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 155 



Lamb on his throne on Mount Sion," and to read ^^ names" 
in the books of heaven, and to look upon the shining inha- 
bitants and their celestial services, and to hear their praises, 
and, to run his eye along the unrolling of ages to the end of 
time, and to obtain glimpses of the '' new heavens and new 
earth" and the accumulating glory and eternal order of 
things beyond the sunset of this world. 

2. Another example of the peculiar friendships of Christ 
is found in the touching history of the Bethany family. 
^' Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." 
Doubtless, he often sought repose in their peaceful and 
humble dwelling, where he always received the most cordial 
welcome, and through which he diflfused the charms of a 
mansion of glory. They were happy, and many a pious 
family on earth is almost like that; but sickness came. A 
message is sent to the divine Friend : " Lord, behold, he 
whom thou lovest is sick." That Friend braves the hostility 
of his enemies, resists the remonstrances of his disciples, and 
resolves to " return into Judea." But death anticipates his 
arrival. He stands at the door of the sepulchre. He ''groans 
in spirit, and is troubled — he weeps" for his friend — with 
the sisters, and over humanity; and the Jews exclaim, "Be- 
hold how he loved him !" Yes, in his groans, in his tears, 
was commingled the evidence of the Saviour's special friend- 
ship for Lazarus and his sisters. Never can we believe that 
the sympathy of special friendship for Lazarus and his sis- 
ters was absorbed in his general sympathy for the human 
race. The whole narrative is too direct to admit of such a 
conclusion. But Christ's friendships are eternal. He who 
wept over the severance of social ties by death had in him- 
self relief. ''I am the resurrection and the life;" — in me is 
not only the power to raise the dead, but also the indestruc- 
tible affection of friendship. '' Thy brother shall rise again;" 
thy hroiJier — that is, Lazarus — shall be thy' brother in tb? 



156 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



general resurrection, and your social ties, weeping sisters, 
shall be reunited, elevated, and perpetuated forever. Neither 
death nor the resurrection shall annihilate the peculiar 
friendships of our inmost social nature. The immutability 
of Christ's social nature is the model and the guarantee of 
the immutability of the pious special friendships of all in- 
ferior and subordinate social natures. The social nature of 
man in him is associated with divine holiness and love ; and 
if special attachments are not absorbed in that union, why 
may not our social nature, which he assumed and exalted, 
be susceptible of similar attachments ? The divinity does 
not render the human element in him insusceptible of pecu- 
liar friendships ; no more does a new spiritual and holy 
nature render us insusceptible of peculiar friendships. With 
such a standard, if we have rightly considered it, we may 
anticipate with absolute certainty the perpetuation of our 
pious and peculiar friendships forever in heaven. 

3. The apostles had their favorite churches. The church 
at Philippi seems to have been the favorite church of St. 
Paul. Hear him : ^' I thank my Grod upon every remem- 
brance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you mak- 
ing request with joy — because I have you in my heart;" 
and he calls them his ^^ brethren dearly-beloved and longed 
for, his joy and his crown. ^' He had also his favorites 
among the ministry, Timothy in particular, of whom he says 
that, " as a son with the father, he hath served with me in 
the gospel ;" whom he calls his " own son in the gospel," 
and, again, his " dearly-beloved son;" and to whom he wrote 
his epistles. He had also his favorites among the member- 
ship. Thus, in the epistle to the Komans: " Greet Priscilla 
and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my 
life laid down their own necks. Salute my well-beloved 
Epenetus, who is the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ. 
Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. Greet Am 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 157 



plias, my beloved in the Lord ;" and a long list of special 
names is added. In his second epistle to Timothy he says, 
''The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for 
he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain ; the 
Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in 
that day : and in how many things he ministered unto me 
at Ephesus, thou knowest very well." Every faithful and 
successful minister of the gospel in the present day can say 
the same things, and no doubt the same has been true in all 
ages of the church. 

4. The relation between the minister and those converted 
through his instrumentality is a holy and peculiarly tender 
one. It is one of the purest spiritual affection. It is indeed 
in the highest degree peculiar. It is not founded in or- 
dinary pious social afiections ; for our spiritual fathers may 
not be connected with us by any of the ties of nature. It 
is not founded on the affection of gratitude, for they may 
have never performed for us a single temporal benefaction. 
It is not founded upon the affection of ordinary friendship, 
for they may have been entire strangers to us. It is not 
founded upon congeniality of temperament, for in this re- 
spect they may be of quite opposite constitutional traits; 
as Paul, the bold and zealous, was instrumental in the con- 
version of the gentle Lydia. Nor is it founded upon the 
spiritual affection common to all true Christians, for the love 
we cherish for our spiritual fathers is different from that which 
we cherish for the rest of the family of God. It is a new, 
peculiar, and independent affection, awakened in the heart 
renewed by the Holy Spirit and entertained for that man 
alone who led us to Christ. When Paul gave his farewell 
to the church at Ephesus, '' they all wept sore, and fell on 
his neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the 
words which he spake, that they should see his face no 
more."* To the church at Corinth he wrote, " For I bear 

14 



158 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have 
plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me." 
Peter, when the brethren of Cassarea earnestly besought 
him not to go to Jerusalem, answered, ''What mean ye to 
weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be 
bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of 
the Lord Jesus." When Peter was imprisoned by Herod, 
'' prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto Grod 
for himj" and when he was delivered by the angel of God, 
and went to the house of Mary, "where many were gathered 
together praying" for him, Rhoda, who ''knew his voice," 
could "not open the door for gladness." 

And so the apostles cherished a peculiar spiritual affec- 
tion for the churches. To the church at Corinth St. Paul 
writes, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts;" — I have 
no need of any other epistle — ye are written in my heart ; 
" written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living 
G-od ; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the 
heart," — a most ardent love and affectionate remembrance, 
not inscribed upon parchment, but exerted by the Spirit of 
God, and hence never to be effaced, — inscriptions of holy 
love, not engraved upon monumental marble, but upon the 
heart, and hence never to be obliterated. To his "beloved" 
Philippians he writes, "Even as it is meet for me to think 
this of you all, because I have you in my heart — for God is 
my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of 
Jesus Christ:" — you live in my heart; I call God to wit- 
ness that I have an undying affection for you, that I share 
with Christ in the tenderest love and concern for you; and 
hence my love for you is as indestructible as that of Christ 
for his saints. To the church at Corinth he writes again, 
" For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote 
unto you, with many tears ; not that ye should be grieved, 
but that ye might know the love which I have more abun- 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 169 



dantly unto you;" as an affectionate pastor even in his ad- 
monitions manifesting his abundant love for his flock. 
Again : ^' I will very gladly spend and be spent for you ; 
though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved;" 
as a devoted father does for his children; I will expend all 
I have and am for you, my whole strength and life ; and 
will love you the more, though as disobedient children you 
love me the less. Again : " I write not these things to 
shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For, though 
ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not 
many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you in 
the gospel;" — none can stand in that spiritual relation which 
you sustain to me alone; none can feel that parental regard 
which I feel for you. To the Thessalonians he writes, 
^' But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth 
her children ; and we exhorted, and comforted, and charged 
every one of you, as a father doth his children — so, being 
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have im- 
parted unto you, not the gospel of Grod only, but also our 
own souls, because ye were dear unto us." No words can be 
conceived of as expressive of a stronger affection and attach- 
ment. Good tidings from the Thessalonians by Timothy 
excited in the apostle the liveliest joy: ''But now, when 
Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good 
tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good 
remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we 
also to see you : therefore, brethren, we were greatly com- 
forted over you in all our affliction and distress by your 
faith : for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For 
what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all 
the joy wherewith ive Joy FOn YOUR SAKES before our God!" 
The tidings of their steadiness, and charity, and affectionate 
remembrance of him, revived the apostle with new life, and 
excited in him the highest satisfaction and joy and the 



160 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



most ardent desire that he niiglit see them again — ''night 
and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face 
and might perfect that which was lacking in your faith/' 
To Gaius he writes, "/ have no greater joy than to hear 
that my children walk in truth;'' and the whole epistle, 
though a brief one, is a loving one. Thus, we have the 
most abundant evidence that a new, strong, independent, 
and peculiar reciprocity is excited by the Holy Spirit in the 
hearts of the ministry and the church. As in ' the social 
nature of man parental and filial affections are distinct from 
every other affection, so in spiritual and holy natures 
analogous spiritual affections are awakened by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Shall these peculiar affections ever be quenched? Never. 
The ardor of apostolic devotion was never chilled by such a 
belief, but glowed into a flame of celestial hope. Both the 
apostles and their converts caught the holy fire that flashed 
its brilliant light over into eternity. To the Corinthians the 
inspired Paul writes, "TTe are your rejoicing, even as ye 
also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus." And again : 
^^ Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall 
raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you." 
And to the Thessalonians : ''For what is our hope, or joy, 
or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in the presence of 
our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our 
glory and joy." Again: "And to you who are troubled, 
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven with his mighty angels," — rest with us he shall give 
in the day of eternity. From the dim futurity the Psalmist 
caught the melody of the same jubilant joy : " He that goeth 
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 
Holy visions ! Blessed hopes ! — oh, the blessedness of the 
fulfilment ! 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 161 



Let us meditate. If converts entertain a peculiar affec- 
tion for those who led them to Christ, will they not cherish 
the same affection, but in a higher degree, when they meet 
them in the presence of Christ? If they wept, and fell on 
the necks of the apostles, and kissed them, and sorely 
grieved, when they parted from them with no hope of see- 
ing them again in this life, will they not rejoice with a 
peculiar joy when they meet them in the future state? If 
they wept, and almost broke the hearts of the apostles in 
endeavoring to dissuade them from venturing into danger, 
will they not rejoice with a peculiar joy when they meet 
them where they will be eternally secure? If they prayed 
without ceasing for the apostles that they might be delivered 
from prison and saved from death, will they not praise God 
with a peculiar joy when they meet them in a state of 
eternal deliverance and protection ? If they received the 
apostles ^' as the angels of God," and loved them so dearly 
that they ''would have plucked out their eyes and given 
them unto them" in this life, will they not love them with 
a peculiar love, and rejoice with a peculiar joy, when they 
meet them where love and joy are perfect? If they would 
have laid down their lives for the apostles, will they not love 
them with a peculiar love, and rejoice with a peculiar joy, 
when they meet them in that world where love demands no 
sacrifice and joy is never commingled with grief? If they 
rejoice in the peculiar hope of meeting the apostles in 
the presence of Christ, will they not rejoice with a pecu- 
liar joy when they meet them in that blessed presence? 
If, by the love of Christ constraining, the apostles did 
more for their converts than others did for them, will 
not the converts feel for them a warmer spiritual affection 
than for any one else in the universe and eternity except 
God himself? 

Let us meditate. If the converts were written on the 

14* 



162 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



hearts of the apostles on earth, can the apostles forget them 
in heaven ? If with much affliction and anguish of heart 
the apostles admonished their converts, will they not with 
a corresponding joy greet them when they join them in the 
eternal fruition of the fruits of their pious care? If the 
apostles were bound to their converts by spiritual parental 
ties on earth, will those ties be severed or weakened in 
heaven ? If the apostles expended their strength and 
lives for the salvation of their converts, will they not 
love them with a peculiar love, and rejoice with a pecu- 
liar joy, when that salvation is secured forever in heaven? 
If the apostles would have imparted their own souls to 
their converts to save them, will they not rejoice with 
a peculiar joy when they meet them in their own per- 
fection and glory? If the apostles rejoiced with all joy 
when they heard of the steadfastness and charity of their 
converts, and heard that they were affectionately remembered 
by them, will they not rejoice with a heightened joy when 
they meet them where they will be established in the favor 
of God forever and their fellowship will be eternal ? If the 
apostles when absent from their converts desired most ear- 
nestly to see them, and prayed exceedingly day and night 
that they might see them, to perfect that which was lacking 
in their faith, will they not rejoice with a peculiar joy when 
they meet them in the perfect image of God and where 
they shall enjoy perpetual communion? If the apostles 
knew no greater joy than to hear that their children were 
walking in the truth, can they experience any higher sub- 
ordinate joy than that which will ravish their exalted 
natures when they meet them in the immediate presence of 
Him who is the truth, the way, and the life? 

Let us meditate. If by inspiration the apostles anticipated 
that their converts would be their rejoicing, and the converts 
anticipated that the apostles would be their rejoicing^ in the 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 163 



day of the Lord Jesus, will not the apostles and the con- 
verts experience a mutual and a peculiar joy in the blessed 
meeting on the blessed day ? If the apostles hnew that He 
who raised up the Lord Jesus would also raise up them 
and their faithful converts, and present them together at the 
throne, will they not meet each other with a mutual and 
peculiar rapture in the august and glorious presentatation ? 
If the apostles saw reflected in their converts their hope, 
and joy, and crown, and glory, from the presence of the 
Lord Jesus at his coming, will they not experience a pecu- 
liar ecstasy in the recognition of the converts themselves 
when Christ comes to be '^ admired in his saints'^ ? If, when 
the church was shrouded in the gloom of persecution and 
earth and hell were marshalled to crush the kingdom of 
Christ, the apostles were penetrated with the profoundest 
sympathy for their converts and animated their drooping 
spirits with the hope of unspeakable rest with themselves 
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels, will they not rejoice with a peculiar joy 
over those converts when " the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
and with the trump of God,'' and "ten thousand times ten 
thousand, and thousands of thousands" of angels shall 
"with a loud voice say. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain 
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
and honor, and glory, and blessing, and every creature in 
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea,'' 
shall repeat, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, 
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb forever and ever" ? 

Let us meditate. "Joy!" and the apostles knew no 
other joy on earth but that of saving souls: will not this 
joy enter into their eternal bliss? "Grlory!" and the apos- 
tles had no earthly prospects but those of distress, persecu- 



164 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



tion, and death: where then shall they look for "glory," 
but in the gracious and eternal fruits of their apostleship? 
^' A crown \" and the apostles sought not the laurels of mar- 
tial triumph, though they spoke of a warfare; nor the 
wreath of earthly wisdom, though they spoke of a heavenly 
wisdom; nor the lettered honors of antiquity, though they 
aspired to a knowledge of the writings of God; nor the 
riches of this world, but sacrified every thing they had 
in the world for other riches; nor a temporal kingdom 
nor crown, though they did seek a kingdom and a crown. 
What then shall constitute their eminence and dignity, but 
the peculiar glory awaiting their ministry, of which con- 
verts were the seals and ornaments on earth, and whose 
resplendence every soul ransomed through their instru- 
mentality shall augment? No joy in heaven like that of 
the apostles and holy and eminent ministers of the gospel 
in all ages of time! no glory like theirs, no crown like 
theirs, no rest like theirs ! Oh, it were worth to them a 
thousand suffering lives and agonizing deaths just to gather 
around them, in the sweet and holy shade of the Tree of 
Life, the seals to their ministry, with whom they had suffered 
and rejoiced in numberless ways on earth; for whom, in 
Christ and for Christ, they had lived alone, and endured 
every thing, and expended all ; and with whom they may re- 
hearse the history of their ransoming, and unite their praises 
to Him who is the source of all their happiness and the 
burden of all their songs! Oh, blessed fulfilment of all 
the great sayings of inspiration ! Transporting glimpses of 
the fulfilment they had had in their holy communion in the 
wilderness ! And then it was a joy unutterable, a peace un- 
speakable, a love that passeth knowledge, a hope full of 
immortality, which thrilled their hearts; but now I cannot 
raise my thoughts to the fulfilment; heaven must disclose it. 
By unutterable^ infallible persuasions, the soul in this life 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 165 



had demonstrated so much of intellectual and moral space 
as to place in the grasp of faith the reality of the unknown 
and boundless remainder, and invest the mind with vigor 
sufficient to perform the journey across the desert of life and 
the river of death; and now they have crossed the desert 
and the river and entered upon the common possession of 
that remainder. They had in their mortal state ran out 
the line of experience to the farthest bounds possible, and 
had in holy fellowship often approached so near the 
entrancing verge of the heavenly state as almost to hear the 
songs of angels and the voice of Jesus; and now, in a deeper 
communion, they sing sweeter than the angels and converse 
with Jesus. Often, on the wings of faith, hope, and love, 
in holy fellowship, had they clove the clouds of time, and 
soared so high above them and into so pure and bright a 
region, as to feel rapt in the belief that they could not be 
far from the city of Grod; and now they are settled and 
associated on the summits of Zion, and heighten each other's 
rapture in the beatific gaze upon the king in his glory. 
Often had they familiarly and sacredly conversed about 
the great facts of their future state, and much and gloriously 
had the apostles written about them, though they cried out, 
all that they could say about them was that they were un- 
speakable, all that they could think about them was that 
they were inconceivable, and yet they believed Grod in 
Christ Jesus could "do exceedingly abundantly above all 
that they could ask or think;'' and now these great facts 
are settled, and the omnipotent faith is realized, and, in run- 
ning back the settlement and realization to the intercourse 
of doubt and uncertainty, they take up every joy and every 
hope by the way, and blend them in the bliss of perfect 
knowledge and holiest reciprocity. For example : often had 
they conversed about primeval Eden, and man in his inno- 
cence, and man in ruins, and man in Christ, and the nature 



166 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



of angels, (the faithful and the fallen,) and the ministrations 
of angels, and the resurrection body, and the heavenly 
company, and the heavenly glory, and, above all and in all, 
the Son of man, the Son of God, in his glory. And now 
these are familiar topics: obscurity is removed, Adam re- 
lates the story of Eden, angels repeat their own history, the 
mystery of the resurrection body is solved, they are a part 
of the heavenly company, the heavenly glory enshrines 
them, and the divinity of the Son of man is ^'all in all/' 
revealing the panorama of the universe in open vision, ex- 
tending to the farthest limit and the summit of the good- 
ness and the justice of the self-existent and eternal God- 
head. Oh ! if the apostles and their converts could forget 
one another, now they might do it; if their mutual and 
peculiar love could be suspended, or be merged for a 
moment in a personal beatific vision, now it might be done; 
if, like stars in meridian sunlight, they could lose one an- 
other in the glory of God, now they might do it; if, in 
the love of each for Him who is love and the love of all, 
they could love no one else, now they might do it; if 
among the radiant faces in " the whole family'^ of God they 
might overlook the faces of one another, if among the com- 
mingling shouts and songs of all the angelic and ransomed 
orders — smooth as the river in its native bed, rapid as the 
tide of flowing thought, loud as the peal of great thunders, 
and majestic as the fall of mighty waters — the songs and 
shouts of each other could be indistinguishable, now it might 
be so. But no : the more they know of God, the more they 
know of one another; the more steadily they gaze on Him, 
the more clearly they see in each other the representation 
of Him; the higher they rise in the glory of God, the more 
brightly they see themselves revealed; the more intensely 
they love God, the more ardently they love one another; 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 167 



and their faces and their forms will be the more radiant, 
and their shouts and their songs the more distinct, and 
their mutual and peculiar love the more endearing, the more 
they are changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of God 
in Christ Jesus, "to whom be glory, through all ages, world 
without end. Amen.^' 

Let us conclude. There are harmonies of the soul which 
we do not expect to know in this world, and which can be 
realized only when the soul unfolds all its energies in the 
freedom and boundlessness of its future being. Oh, that is 
a happy, happy world to which we aspire, where union is 
perpetual as the friendship of God, where we can no more 
be separated from our friends than the soul can be severed 
from its God, and where in the unfolding of our social and 
spiritual nature the special regards we now bear for our 
friends, and which now sweeten our intercourse with them, can 
no more be obliterated than a part of our substantial nature 
can be annihilated ! As certain as is the future realization 
of the great objects of other faculties of our mental consti- 
tution, is the consummation of our peculiar regards for our 
sainted friends and relations. The highest and richest 
strains of the songs of the affections here, and their softest 
and sweetest cadences, are but the prophetic prelude of that 
song of praise to the Lamb with which we shall not only 
celebrate his unspeakable love for us, but the celestial tender- 
ness and ardor of our peculiar and perpetual friendships. 
There is an affection which we cherish for the people of God, 
and an affection which we cherish for our friends, and an 
affection which we cherish for our relations, and an affection 
which we cherish for God, which last is the source of and 
pervades all the rest; and all these affections are now in the 
infancy of their being, whose maturity and perpetuity we 
seek in the fulness of the Godhead and the companionship 



168 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



of all holy beings in the universe — the reciprocities of our 
friends and relations and of our own social circles constitut- 
ing the sweetest elements in the social bliss of heaven. 

Here we close the argument of this volume. The con- 
sideration of a difficulty and of objections remains. We de- 
vote a chapter to the consideration of the difficulty, which 
shall conclude this .part of the treatise. 





^,A../^ 



CHAPTER IV. 

A DIFFICULTY CONSIDERED — THE MEDIUM OF FUTURE 

RECOGNITION. 

We are not so mucli concerned about the medium of 
recognition in the heavenly state, for of that we can know 
nothino; certain now, because the future life is so exalted 
that probably its modes of communion of spirits are above 
our present power of comprehension. The certainty of 
recognition is the material point to establish. However, 
we may rationally suppose that it will proceed upon the 
same laws on which it takes place in this world. It may 
be immediate, as when we now meet a friend after a long 
absence or in a distant land; or it may be gradual, as 
when we now compare our individual histories, by which 
old associations are revived, the earliest and tenderest 
acquaintance is renewed, and we live, with the liveliest joy, 
in the past again. 

Again, we are not to suppose that the exaltation of the 
heavenly state will render the recognition of our friends im- 
possible to us. It is quite natural to imagine that, as we 
cannot now conceive of the glorious p?ace where our departed 
friends abide, they too must be exalted above our knowledge. 
In this we overlook the fact that we shall be as exalted as 
they are, and consequently shall know them as they know 
one another, and so must know them as they are, — that is, 
as our friends and relations, for such they are still and ever 
will be. 

1. As to the medium of recognition in the intermediate 

state, that is, between death and the resurrection. 

The fact of recognition in the separate state is clearly set 

15 169 



170 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



forth in the case of the rich man and Lazarus. The fact 
also that the separate state of the saints is one of intimate 
communion and happiness is also set forth in the same case; 
for Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom, and he was ''com- 
forted." But through what media, — whether they be new 
and more subtle organs than those adapted to the soul in 
its present state, which the soul may form to itself, — or 
whether they be such as Grod shall by a special act of creation 
adjust to the mind, — or whether the soul will obtain a know- 
ledge of external things without any media at all, — we know 
not. But this we are taught by revelation : that the soul, in 
the separate state, will have a knowledge of external things. 
St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven, " whether in 
the body, or out of the body," was uncertain to him; but 
this was certain : that he received glorious revelations, and 
heard unspeakable words, not lawful or possible for man to 
utter; which clearly supposes that it is possible for the soul 
to exist, perceive, and know, without the body, — indeed, to 
comprehend things beyond the apprehension of men in the 
present state. 

All inquiries about the nature of the soul "must be bound 
over at last unto religion, there to be determined and de- 
fined; for otherwise they still lie open to many errors and 
illusions of sense. For seeing that the substance of the soul 
Was not deduced and extracted in her creation from the 
mass of heaven and earth, but immediately inspired by God, 
and seeing the laws of heaven and earth are the proper sub- 
jects of philosophy, how can the knowledge of the sub- 
stance of the reasonable soul be derived or fetched from phi- 
losophy? But it must be drawn from the same inspiration 
from whence the substance thereof flowed."* The separate 
atate has its own laws and modes of communicating knowledge. 

* Bacan, Advane, of Learuing, iv. 3. 



THE MEDIUM OE FUTURE RECOGJ<ITION. 171 



Inspiration reveals this great fact, but does not explain it. 
St. Paul also tells us that he "desired to depart and be with 
Christ, wbieh is far better/' which certainly cannot mean 
that it was far bett^ to be deprived of the use of his reason- 
ing powers than to have the use of them, or that to be with 
Christ is to be in a place of darkness, obscurity, and silence, 
and in a state of oblivion, lethargy, and insensibility, but 
rather that to be with Christ is to be in a most glorious^ 
place, resplendent with light and ravishing vision, where 
mysteries are unfolded unknown to and surpassing the 
reach of frail man in his mortal state, and where he is pre- 
sent with the Lord in a sense in which he was absent from 
him while in the body. 

That the mind is capable of endless improvement is unde- 
niable ; that its power of penetration and discrimination, 
therefore, will be greater in the future state than it is in the 
present, is incontestable. This superior power of pene- 
tration and discrimination may enable the mind to compre- 
hend facts, persons, and things, with the rapidity of intui- 
tion. How much the understanding will be endued with 
strength and quickened into activity by the Spirit of God 
in the separate state, it is impossible to say; but that it will 
be exalted incalculably above its utmost development in this 
life is clearly deducible from a single scripture: "Now 
unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above 
all that we can ask or think, according to the jpower that 
worheth in us," &c; — according to the power that worketh 
in us, the mighty power of the Spirit of God, sanctifying, 
expanding, invigorating, and exalting the mind "exceed- 
ingly abundantly above" what is contained in the utmost 
amplitude of prayer or measured in the highest flight of 
thought in this life. That this operation of the Spirit will 
be more animating, penetrating, and invigorating in the 
future state is certain, because the mind is then to be 



172 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



brought into contact with the great things which "it is un- 
lawful for a man to utter" in this life, and the sight of 
which subdued the physical powers of an inspired apostle 
into a trance or temporary suspension.' Inspired with the 
celestial energy of the Spirit of God, and so rendered capa- 
ble of dwelling even in the highest heaven, and of conversing 
with infinite ease with God and the holiest intelligences, 
and of comprehending probably at a glance the profoundest 
truths and facts, is it reasonable to suppose that we will 
fail to distinguish and recognise our friends and relations 
anywhere in the vast and august family of God ? Doubt- 
less now the loftiest intelligence in heaven, from himself to 
the minutest atom or insect in our world, comprehends 
clearly and definitely'' every individual of mind and matter 
in the whole series, which involves the particular knowledge 
of all the saints of God around him; and it is reasonable to 
suppose that in the separate state our knowledge will be as 
great as his is; for we "shall be as the angels of God,'' and 
shall certainly comprehend as they do what concerns us 
more than concerns them. But we have facts in this life 
which in the strongest light indicate a superior intellectual 
energy and activity in the separate state. Prophetic exer- 
cises of the mind are of this nature, revelations of future 
events, a thousand ages remote, even to the minutest par- 
ticulars, by an intense operation of the Spirit being made 
to the mind of the prophet, — an operation which, while it 
included all the intervening links in the causative and per- 
missive providence of God, concealed them from the know- 
ledge of the prophet, and revealed to him, without reason or 
deduction, the distant fulfilment with ail the certainty and 
vividness of a present and abstract reality, — an inflatus of the 
Spirit, given to difierent seers, in difierent ages, unrolling 
in panoramic grandeur. the world's history to the end of 
time, and even revealing much of the scenery of heaven and 



THE MEDIUM OP FUTURE RECOGNITION. 173 



hell, and maDj of the great events of eternity,— an inflatus 
which is an impressive illustration of the energy of the ope- 
ration of the Spirit upon mind in the separate state. We 
also read in the Bible of many who were endowed with the 
power of discerning spirits, which obviously is the power to 
understand without reasoning or the power of intuition; — a 
supernatural power, by which the person endowed with it 
immediately discerned persons and character, as in the casa 
of the witch of Endor, who immediately knew Saul in his 
disguise and Samuel in his mantle, and Saul knew Samuel, 
and Samuel knew him, as soon as they met; a power by 
which false prophets and apostles were distinguished from 
the true, counterfeit miracles from the genuine, and hypo- 
critical professors from the real, as in the case of Ananias 
and his wife; a power by which Peter, and James, and 
John, distinguished Moses and Ellas on Mount Tabor, and 
Elisha saw the angelic hosts which his servant could not 
see till he prayed that his eyes might be opened, and Daniel 
the glorious personage by the river Hiddekel, while ''the 
men that were with him saw not the#'ision,'' and Saul of 
Tarsus saw Jesus while those who were with him saw him 
not, and devils discerned the Godhead of Christ, though 
veiled in humanity, while men generally regarded him as a 
mere man, and his own disciples on the way to Emmaus 
did not ''know him" till "their eyes were opened." It is 
not assuming too much, then, to say that the mind will be 
endued with the power of recognition in the separate state. 
But we go one step farther, and feel assured that we take 
the step upon strong rational ground. 

The power of recognition is fundamental in the mind. 
We say the exercise of this power will be immediate, as 
occasion offers, in the future state. We have seen above 
some extraordinary examples of this in this life, and we have 
other proofs equally strong, if not stronger, now to adduce. 



174 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



We believe that our sainted friends love us still, dearer 
than ever, more than they can express, because we know 
we love them still, and no language could express our joy 
should we meet them again. But do they see us still, hear 
us still, know us still? They do; for we are not to con- 
clude that they do not because we can no longer see and 
hear and know them. Through what media they see and 
hear and know us, we repeat, we know not; but that there 
may be other media than those of the senses or of natural 
laws, through which they may hold the most intimate 
fellowship with us in this world, is probable from the laws 
of mind and incontestable from the facts of Scripture. Is 
it not probable that in a higher state spirits are brought 
into connection with other media, through which they see 
more clearly what transpires in the world around us, and in 
our hearts within us, than they once did when with us? 
Is it not probable that they are brought into connection 
with the same media through which pure angelic spirits 
hold relation to matter and spirit in this world? What 
those media are we Ijpow not ; but that there are such media 
the Scriptures plainly imply, and it will be encouraging, 
because convincing, to consider a few examples or facts, 
though we cannot explain them. 

When our world, under omnific thinking, trembled into 
perfect and beautiful being, 'Hhe morning stars sang to- 
gether, and the sons of God shouted for joy." Who were 
these? Why, the angels of God. Well, they understood 
the subject, and at a glance probably comprehended the 
amplitude of things created. So far they understood the 
creation of matter, and therefore must have become ac- 
quainted with the great work either through certain media 
uiiknown to us, or immediately — that is, without media. In 
either case it is imujaterial; the fact is obvious. When 
one of the seals of divine providence was opened to John in 



THE MEDIUM OF FUTURE RECOGNITION. 175 



Patmos, he heard " all the angels shout/' which manifestly 
proves that they understood at least the relation of God to 
man in redemption; that they had a profound and animating 
knowledge (though probably not complete) of the mysteries 
of redemption; that they saw in transparent light the new 
and sublime relations of man to God through Jesus Christ, 
to be consummated in the final and eternal exaltation of saints 
to companionship with God and them in heaven. And so 
an angel flew from heaven, and unrolled before Daniel the 
sublime visions of prophecy, extending through all the ages 
of time, and including the stupendous events and issues of 
the Last Day, indicating that angels, in some way, — we know 
not what, — have an intimate and profound knowledge of the 
relation of the human race, in time and eternity, to the plan 
of redemption. How Gabriel knew Daniel, or Daniel knew 
Gabriel, we know not, nor are we concerned about the ex- 
planation of the fact; the fact is all that is material to our 
argument, and the fact we have. David, in several places, 
mentions angels as protectors of the righteous : of course 
they knew the righteous, and distinguished them from the 
wicked. An angel delivered Peter out of prison, and con- 
sequently he knew Peter, and Peter knew him. Angels 
know little children, infant heirs of God and joint heirs 
with Christ. An angel slew the Assyrian army encamped 
before Jerusalem, but touched not an Israelite in the city ; 
and so the destroying angel executed his terrible commission 
in Egypt, but knew the meaning of the blood on the lintels 
of the door-posts of the hosts of Israel. Angels knew Laza- 
rus and conducted him to Abraham's bosom. The angel 
who rolled back the stone of the sepulchre, and sat upon it, 
and guarded the sepulchre, knew the Marys, who came to 
seek Jesus, and said he knew they came to seek Jesus, and 
told them he was gone into Galilee, where they and the di.s- 



176 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



ciples might jBnd him.* Paul declares that angels are minis- 
tering spirits to the heirs of salvation; and Daniel, Paul, 
and John, affirm that angels will accompany Christ in the 
judgment. From the beginning to the end of time, — from 
the creation to the destruction of the world, — in the giving 
of the law, in the unfolding of the gospel, in the revolutions 
of providence, interwoven throughout the history of man in 
redemption, from the most minute particulars to the most 
stupendous events, — all along angels are represented as fill- 
ing offices a.nd performing services that clearly demonstrate 
that they are not only intimately acquainted with man col- 
lectively, but with individuals, and with the most secret 
thoughts and private affairs of individuals, — even penitential 
emotions in the bosom of the humblest and most obscure 
sinner on earth. 

Certain then is it that pure angelic beings possess a capa- 
city to distinguish one human body from another and one 
human spirit from another, and so can distinguish the 
Egyptians and Assyrians from the Israelites, Daniel from 
John, Lazarus from Dives, Peter from the soldiers who 
guarded him, the Marys from other Jewish women, and 
the heirs of salvation from the heirs of perdition. What 
this capacity is we know not, and about it we pretend not 
to speculate. Indeed, such a power lost angels possess ; for 
Satan knew his man in Judas, came near destroying Peter, 
buffeted Paul sorely, (who was ''not ignorant of his 
devices,") subjected Job to a fiery ordeal, took up his 
stronghold in human hearts in the days of Christ, and ever 
roves up and down the world, ''seeking whom he may 
devour.'^ 

We do not assume too much, then, when we say that the 
power of recognition is a fundamental faculty of mind; and 

* Matt. X2viii. 



THE MEDIUM OF FUTURE RECOGNITION. 177 



that therefore this faculty, developed as we know it certainly 
is partially in the present state, will be fully unfolded and 
matured in the future state, enabling us to recognise our 
friends and relations as angels know them here, and 
through which we shall know the angels also as they 
now know us. 

This power is a divine capacity, — one of the original insti- 
tutes of humanity, as reason is, or as the power of naming 
was in Adam, or as the power of naming still is in man, — 
laid up in the depths of mind, spontaneously evolving itself 
with every solicitation or occasion, as ^' the bee makes its 
cell or the bird its nest," or as the tree unfolds itself from 
the vigorous germ to full maturity, — acting with the rapidity 
of intuition or the highest reason, grasping the noblest 
ideas, and exciting the tenderest and purest corresponding 
sentiments by its own spontaneity. This power in its original 
perfection was possessed by Adam. While he slept pro- 
foundly. Eve was created, and when brought to him, though 
he had not seen her before, he said, on sight, '' This is now 
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" and this he said 
with the same intuition with which he gave appropriate 
names to the animals of the field and the fowls of the air. 
This power will be restored to its original perfection in the 
separate state, and so on sight, with the rapidity of intuition^ 
we shall, it may be inferred, recognise one another. 

We make another remark. Recognition may proceed 
from instruction. We know not through what media. We 
again refer to the facts of Scripture. 

That the saints have instructed each other is evident 
from the Scriptures. ^'Then I heard one saint speaking, 
and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake. 
How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, 
and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanc- 
tuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said 



178 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then 
shall the sanctuary be cleansed:" Dan. viii. 13, 14. And 
60 the saints have made themselves known to their fellov,- 
saints. ''And I (John) fell at his feet to worship him. 
And he said unto me, see thou do it not ; I am thy felloic- 
servant, and of thy hrefhren that have the testimony of 
Jesus:" Rev. xix. 10. Again: John was instructed by a 
saint: "And I John saiv these things, and heard them. 
And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship 
before the feet of the angel which sJiowed me these things. 
And he saith unto me, See thou do it not : for I am thy 
fellow-servantf and of thy brethren the prophets, and of 
them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God:" 
Sev. xxii. 8, 9. And so angels have instructed the saints. 
As an example : " And it came to pass, when I, even I 
Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, 
then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a 
man : and I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, 
which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand 
the vision. So he came near where I stood, and said unto 
me. Understand, son of man, for at the time of the end 
shall be the vision. And he said. Behold, I will make thee 
know what shall he in the last end of the indignation,'' &c. : 
Dan. viii. 15-19. Other examples in Dan. ix. 21—23, 
X. 14, 21, in which Gabriel gives Daniel ^^ skill and under- 
standing," and ^^ makes him understand what s/mZ/ befall 
his people in the latter days," and "shoiced him what was 
noted in the scripture of truth.' ^ 

The angels have had charge of every saint on earth, and 
know them all by name, and, if need be, they can discover 
the saints to one another. The saints, as we have seen, can 
make themselves known to one another in friendly conver- 
sations, as is now done on earth. Indeed, doubtless, intelli- 
gent and holy spirits excel in the methods of communicating 



THE MEDIUM OF FUTURE RECOONITION. 179 



their thoughts. They also excel in perceiving the thoughts 
of one another. There are certain particulars of ourselves, 
such as peculiarities of temper, sentiment, and friendship, 
which we have revealed to but few, and it may be to but 
one on earth, and we know not that another being except 
the Omniscient is acquainted with these sacred things; 
and if a stranger, or one to whom we had not disclosed 
them, should evince that he too is acquainted with them, at 
once would we begin to suspect ourselves betrayed by him 
in whom we had reposed confidence. These peculiarities 
are the basis of a special recognition. What better evi- 
dence, therefore, can we have that saints and angels are 
acquainted with the saints on earth, than Daniel had in 
his conversation with the angel and John had in his in- 
terview with "the elder"? And what more convincing 
proof do we require that saints and angels, if need be, 
will instruct the saints newly arrived in the separate state 
in all things connected with its harmony and fellowship? 
It is not presuming too far to say that this is now one of 
the employments of that blessed state. 

2. As to the medium of recognition after the resurrection. 
On this topic we shall be brief. The medium of recognition 
will be the resurrection body. This topic we have already 
considered at length. 



PART IV. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

CHAPTEE I. 

SEVERAL MINOR OBJECTIONS. 

In this chapter we shall consider several objections of 
minor importance. 

1. '^If the doctrine of future recognition were true, it 
would be more clearly revealed." That it is clearly revealed 
in several Scriptures, and clearly implied in others, we hope 
has been shown. 

2. "The heavenly life will be much higher than this." 
That is true : but the saints will be exalted also ; and they 
will remember their former being. 

3. "The love of Christ will absorb every other affection." 
Not at all : for subordinate holy love will exist in heaven, as 
it does on earth ; and this will heighten the happiness of 
saints, as it did their happiness on earth. Supreme love to 
God originates, regulates, and perpetuates subordinate love. 
Recognition of our friends as sharers of the rewards of re- 
demption will heighten our grateful love to Grod. 

4. "The number of heaven's inhabitants excludes the 
possibility of knowing them all." But the number is 
limited, and eternity will be time enough to know them all. 

5. The change in the resurrection will be so great that 
recognition will be impossible. 

First, this is assuming too much ; for we do not know 
how great the change will be in the resurrection, and hence 
cannot say that the change will be so great as to prevent 

180 



SEVERAL MINOR OBJECTIONS. 181 



recognition. Secondly, the body can never lose its identity, 
for that moment it does, it ceases to be what it was, and 
hence cannot be a resurrection, but a transformation. 
Thirdly, the very idea of a resurrection involves recognition. 
That is, as already shown, the body will rise greatly 
improved; but the improvement will be known; which im- 
plies a knowledge of what is improved; and thus the body 
must be recognised in its improved state, whatever its 
improvement. Fourthly, if the resurrection body itself, 
because of its superior glory, should not be immediately 
recognised, the indwelling spirit would make itself known 
through the medium of the body; otherwise the body would 
not be a medium of communicating thought. But because 
of the superior glory of the resurrection body, it will be, we 
may infer, a far better medium of communicating thought 
than the body was in this world. Fifthly, the union 
between the mind and body has never been known ; it may 
be known in the future state, and thus the immediate con- 
nection between the glorified mind and body may at once be 
seen, and then to know one is to know the other. Sixthly, 
we can more easily recognise what has been improved than 
what has been impaired. In proportion as any thing is 
impaired, it loses something of what it was, and so may con- 
tinue to be impaired till it becomes indistinguishable, as the 
mortal body crumbled to dust in the grave, or as a noble 
monument broken into scattered and isolated fragments. 
But every improvement is so much gain added to the ori- 
ginal, which but heightens the original, and renders it the 
more admirable as it becomes the more cognizable. Seventhly, 
upon the supposition that the resurrection body, because of 
its superior glory, will bear no resemblance to the former 
body, it must nevertheless ever be known that it contains in 
it the essence of the former body. What greater dissimi- 
larity between two substances is conceivable than exists 

16 



182 EECOGNITION IN HEAVEN-. 



between charcoal and diamond ? and yet this most brilliant 
and precious gem contains the elements of charcoal, with 
none of the worthless elements of charcoal. The sand on 
the sea-beach is refined into the substance of the splendid 
vase, or the crystal ceiling of the magnificent palace, 
or the telescopic glass that reveals the vast magnificence 
of the heavens. In the unsightly and repulsive caterpillar 
are all the elements of the beautiful and attractive insect; 
and in the rude coil of the seed is the loveliness of flowers, 
the beauty of harvest, and the grandeur of the forest. But 
these wonderful facts we could never know without the test 
of observation. Now let the resurrection body but become 
also an observed fact, developed from the present known 
body, and, no matter what may be the change undergone, or 
the glory of it, it will be as clearly recognised as the pro- 
duct of the former as the diamond, the vase, the insect, the 
flower, the harvest, the forest, are recognised as exalted 
from the rude state in which they had reposed. That is, if 
we could now see the resurrection body rising out of the 
present imperfect and mortal body as we see the vase pro- 
duced from the sand, or the butterfly from the caterpillar, 
or the flower and forest from the seed, the most satisfactory 
recognition would follow ; we could not help regarding it a3 
substantially the same. The connection between the resur- 
rection body and its present state we have never yet seen 
developed, though we believe a connection exists; the 
glorious development will be accompanied with recognition. 
'Whether the resurrection body, therefore, be like or unlike 
the present body, or whatever may be its exaltation and 
glory, it will be known as the product of the present body, 
and so be recognised. When the connection is once made 
out as a fact — and a connection there must be, and the fact 
must occur, — recognition must follow. 

Eighthly, we have said that the resurrection body will 



SEVERAL MINOR OBJECTIONS. 183 



be " spiritual" in its nature. Consequently, it will approach 
in its exercises nearer the functions of spirit than those of 
its former being. It may be as far exalted above what 
it now is as the mind is now exalted above the body; and 
the mind being exalted correspondingly, what a wonderful 
capacity of recognition will the glorified mind have in the 
spiritual body ! 



CHAPTER 11. 

OBJECTIONS CONTINUED. 

There are two objections whicli are of more importance 
ttan the preceding, and to these we shall give a more 
extended consideration. Indeed, they are rather difficulties 
than objections. 

1. It is supposed that '^particular friendships will be 
absorbed in universal charity ; and that any partial regard 
toward one good man more than another is too narrow a 
feeling, and unworthy of a 'saint made perfect.' " 

We have said that in several essential particulars heaven 
is like our present state, and therefore we must be ourselves 
forever. What is the fact, as far as our experience and 
observation extend, in the present state? Perfect holiness 
in finite spirits is the assemblage of every grace, every vir- 
tue, and every thing else that is lovely, excellent, desirable, 
right, great, and dignified. Do we find that as the best 
Christians improve in holiness on earth they become less 
capable of particular friendships? Not at all; on the con- 
trary, the holiest Christians — those who approach nearest the 
heavenly state — are the warmest and steadiest in their regard 
to their relations and particular Christian brethren; and 
heaven is the perfection of the present state. Besides, we 
can never equal the perfection of Christ. Among private 
Christians, ''Lazarus was his friend;'' and among the 
apostles, John was " the disciple whom Jesus loved." His 
particular friendship for Lazarus and John was not unworthy 
of Him, nor did it interfere with his love for the rest of the 

apostles or the rest of private Christians. Why, then, 
184 



OBJECTIONS CONTINUED. 185 



should the particular friendships of saints be unworthy of 
them or interfere with their universal charity ? The 
ground of the objection^ then, — holiness, — is the very ground 
of the purest and noblest particular friendships in heaven. 

The hope of recognition, in a special sense, is the fruit of 
grace given in bereavement; and this hope sweetens resigna- 
tion. And hence, if we shall not recognise our friends in a 
special sense, grace promises on earth what it will not fulfil 
in heaven. Besides, if this be so, we should feel no more 
grief, and indulge no dearer hope, when bone of our bone 
and flesh of our flesh is laid in the grave, than we do 
when ordinary Christians, the stranger, and the children of 
strangers, die. But this is not so. The dearest names on 
earth are those of our friends, and the dearest graves in the 
graveyard are those of our own household; and grace will 
redeem its hallowed pledges beyond the grave. The pre- 
sence of Christ will compensate for the peculiar grief of 
bereavement in the peculiar joy of recognition. Moreover, 
the objection proceeds upon a false principle. Variety of 
objects, equally worthy, does not lessen afiection or diminish 
happiness, but heightens both. True, we shall love all in 
heaven because they are holy, and for the same reason they 
will love us; but for this very reason we shall cherish a 
peculiar love for those we knew and loved on earth, because 
holiness heightens love ; and, however it may heighten our 
love for those we never knew, we see no reason why it 
should not heighten, in the same proportion, our love for 
those we have known. 

It may be replied, if the grace of Grod can reconcile us to 
the absence of friends from heaven, it can also enable us to 
be content with loving others in heaven as we do our friends. 
To this we reply, the cases are different. In the one case 
there are reasons in the nature of things; in the other case 
there is none : in the one, the government of God, to say 

16* r 



186 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



no more at present, is to be vindicated; in the other, so far 
as we can see, this vindication is not involved. 

2. It is supposed that grief will be felt for the absence 
and loss of some who have been dear to us on earth ; and 
therefore it is assumed that we shall not know our friends 
in heaven. 

First, it has been proved, by abundant evidence, that we 
shall know our friends in heaven; and so the supposition is 
a difficulty easily solved, not an objection. 

Secondly, as a difficulty it is not solved by the assumption 
that we shall not know one another in heaven. For how then 
could we know whether our friends are present or absent ? and 
hence the very uncertainty would involve the grief supposed. 

Thirdly, if we could at pleasure abstract our minds from 
those subjects on which it is painful, but vairij to meditate, 
it would increase greatly our happiness. But this we cannot 
do in this life. The power to do this, it is reasonable to 
suppose, we shall possess in heaven, because there we shall 
have a perfectly holy nature, and holiness will regulate 
natural affection, as it regulates every thing else. This will 
solve the difficulty. The question is not to be settled upon 
the abstract principle of natural affection, but love as it is 
controlled by a sense of divine justice and holiness. God 
cannot love what is unjust or unholy. The saints will be 
established in his perfect image. 

It is generally supposed that the social affections are natu- 
ral in man. This is not so. They originate in the initial 
grace of God. When this grace is withdrawn, man sinks 
into a malignant fiend; and when it is developed in repent- 
ance and faith, he rises into a holy saint. In the one case 
social affection is utterly obliterated, in the other it is 
exalted to the highest perfection. But perfect grace is a 
perfect support; that is, a perfectly holy being can never 
go love a perfectly unholy being as to be made miserable by 



OBJECTIONS CONTINUED. 187 



his destruction. The grace that exalts the social affections 
to the highest perfection can never sanction the exercise 
of those affections toward an improper object, for this would 
frustrate the very end of grace. Nothing in the natural 
man is lovely; we love in man only what is borrowed from 
grace ; and a lost soul has ceased to be what it was ; it is 
no longer an object of love, and, though a holy nature may 
wish it had been otherwise, it will not be miserable in its 
absence. What was once an object of affection has ceased 
to be such ; and tlie reasons why it has ceased to be such, 
when fully known, as they will be in the light of eternity, 
will be sufficient to prevent any painful meditations or 
regrets. It may be stated in general terms now, as all true 
and permanent love for our friends is the fruit of the grace 
of God, that love can never clash with love for God himself; 
and hence love for God can never be affected by the loss of 
former friends. Love for God may require in this life the 
sacrifice of love for our dearest friends. '^If any man come 
to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and 
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, 
he cannot be my disciple :" Luke xiv. 26. 

It is impossible for the unregenerate heart to see how 
this can be. Even imperfect Christians may find it difficult 
to comprehend this great truth, so much of corrupt nature 
remains, the knowledge of the nature and designs of God is 
so defective, and the affections are so divided between God 
and the objects of this world ! But in the perfectly sancti- 
fied heart, in which the will is wholly absorbed in the will 
of God, and the sensibilities sweetly harmonize with the 
love of God, and the understanding is guided by the know- 
ledge of God, there can be neither murmur, nor regret, nor 
pang, in approbating the conduct of God, though it condemn 
to eternal destruction our dearest friends and relations. If 
by abrupt violence and manifest injustice, without sufficient 



188 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



and plain reasons, they were cut off, the case would be far 
otherwise. Then we might mourn or complain upon just 
ground. But when it is presupposed that in heaven the 
saints, made perfectly conformable to the will and nature 
of God, will have before them the entire history of their 
lost and absent friends, it is obvious that their condemnation 
cannot be the occasion of any sorrow or distress. In a word, 
the question is not to be settled upon the abstract principle 
of love, but love as it is controlled by a sense of the justice 
and holiness of God, which is analogous to the love of God 
himself, and which is the nature of the love of the saints in 
heaven. 

Fourthly, the advocates of this objection overlook the de- 
sign of pious sympathy and affection in this life. Now the 
entire holy universe is excited in behalf of man, because 
such tremendous issues are yet unsettled. The Father, 
Son, and Spirit, angels, prophets, apostles, the ministry, 
the church, and pious friends and kindred, are all moved to 
save man, because he is now in a salvable state. But when 
all the measures of grace shall have failed, wheiT the incal- 
culable expenditure of divine love and sympathy shall have 
effected no good to the sinner, there will be no longer any 
object to be accomplished by the mighty, universal, spon- 
taneous, sympathetic, and anxious impulse of holy beings : 
a continuation of such an impulse would be vain. It is 
mercy that now excites and justifies this universal sympathy; 
for man, upon the redemptive principle, has a right to trial 
for a final and blessed destiny, and hence he is a proper 
object of the sympathy of all holy beings. But when that 
mercy is rejected, and all his gracious rights wilfully and 
wickedly forfeited, he is no longer a proper object of holy 
sympathy, and so must perish with the unqualified appro- 
bation of the holy universe, it may be with commiseration, 
but without an emotion of personal grief in a single friend 



OBJECTIONS CONTINUED. 189 



or relation among the saints of God. The glory of inflexible 
justice and holiness is terrific to ns now; but in the end, in 
the condemnation of the sinner, it will shine out with such 
an intense resplendence that it will overwhelm all holy 
beings with admiration and rapture, and call forth a uni- 
versal shout of approbation. To the just and irrevocable 
sentence, ''Depart," the attendant angels will respond, 
Amen! Surrounding saints, however dearly and tenderly 
they loved formerly, will repeat. Amen! Devils, in the 
arch-mockery of hell, as they rush forward to seize their 
prey, will repeat. Amen ! The melancholy voice of the 
condemned conscience within will reiterate, Amen ! iThc 
mansions of heaven will echo, and the caverns of hell rever- 
berate. Amen ! For the emphasis of the terrible word is 
derived from the profound manifestation of the justice, 
holiness, and wisdom of Grod in the open light of eternity. 

Fifthly, profound theologians have clearly elaborated the 
conclusion that the eternal condemnation of the sinner is 
founded in the love of Grod; and so they have concluded 
that the happiness of all holy beings requires it. We shall 
not detain the reader with the argument. No other con- 
clusion could insure the happiness of God himself, for he 
has demonstrated that he loved the sinner with an infinite 
love; and if the happiness of God and of his holy universe 
be not unaffected by the condemnation of the sinner, then 
God must be infinitely miserable, and his holy universe 
measurably so, — a conclusion which, being manifestly absurd 
as it respects God, must be false as it respects all holy beings; 
because they can be happy only as God is happy, — that is, 
God can do nothing that shall make them unhappy. 

Sixthly, if we have failed to give the true reasons whj" 
the saints will not grieve for the absence and loss of some 
who have been dear to them on earth, — if we have not even 
approximated to the true reasons, — they are implied in the 



190 



EECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



following plain declarations of Scripture respecting the hap- 
piness of the heavenly world. "And the ransomed of the 
]jord shall return, and come to Zion, with songs and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and 
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away :" Isa. 
XXXV. 10. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the 
Lord Grod will wipe away tears from off all faces:" Isa. xxv. 
8. " For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains 
of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes:" Rev. vii. 17. "And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; 
for the former things are passed away :^' Rev. xxi. 4. 
The refutation of the objection is contained in these Scrip- 
tures, and, though we may not have evolved from them the 
true principles or reasons on which they will be finally veri- 
fied, the day will disclose them. And let us rest assured 
that one of the reasons of the happiness of the saints cannot 
be ignorance of the presence of each other; for this, we 
have shown, cannot be ; and such ignorance, to say no more, 
would lessen the happiness of heaven; that is, a sense of 
loneliness would exist in the stead of subordinate love. 




CONCLUSION. 



1. Practical. The subject tliat has engaged our atten- 
tion is one of pure and powerful motive. 

By motive we do not mean a sense of duty, which is pro- 
duced alone by the knowledge of the will of God; but an 
inducement to obey the will of God. . Numberless are the 
motives to serve God. Life, this vain and transitory life, is 
full of them. But to the pious and bereaved heart no 
motive is superior to the hope of reunion and recognition of 
sainted friends and relations, and perpetual and exalted com- 
munion with them, but the hope of meeting and communing 
with God himself. Next to our own salvation in our solici- 
tude is the salvation of our nearest relations and friends; and 
this solicitude is sweetly congenial with the hope of dwelling 
inseparably with them in heaven. Our sainted friends are 
true friends ; for insincerity, selfishness, and alienation, are 
impossible in heaven, and there the ties that bound them to 
us on earth have lost nothing of their sanctity and tender- 
ness. When the good man dies and enters heaven, who 
has not felt that the charm of this poor world has been 
lessened and the attraction to that blessed land above sen- 
sibly heightened? And when those dear, 'c?ear- ones of our 
own household leave us for glory, we too would unfold the 
wings mysteriously enwrapped within us, and follow them 
in their blissful flight to that fair and pure country. In 
the overflowing bliss of meditation on the heavenly meeting, 
how often do we spontaneously thank God in our inmost 
hearts that there is a heaven ! Very far gone in degene- 
]ration and insensibility must be the heart that is a stranger 

to this precious sentiment of gratitude, who finds not an 

191 



192 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



additional motive to serve God in the departure of every 
pious friend and relation to the blessed Spirit-land. 

Our sainted loved ones! The remembrance of their 
gentlenesS; goodness, and love, represses our waywardness, 
checks our worldliness, chides our spiritual sloth, rouses us 
from our lethargy, revives our zeal, enlivens our hopes, 
increases our diligence, and invigorates our faith. And the 
thought of what they now are — so much better and holier 
than we are, and in such a holy and happy world, in 
such exalted and happy company, and engaged in such 
noble and holy employments — chastens our sensibilities, sub- 
dues our pride, weakens the motives of sense, deepens the 
conviction of the necessity of entire crucifixion to the 
world and entire purification and consecration to God, that 
we may become in nature like them, and so be suitable for 
fellowship with them. We know they have been so long in 
that pure world above that they are better than we are, 
and in order to be happy with them there we must be 
better here, and that before we die. We never could think 
of meeting their pure spirits as we are; and if no other 
motive could heighten our religious devotion, the desire to 
be holy as they are were enough to do it. If we knew it 
were certain that we should converse with them familiarly 
again on earth, how would we prepare for the blessed occa- 
sion ! We believe, if we were now about to enter heaven, 
they would not decline our society, but, from the love they 
bear for us, would overlook our many infirmities and imper- 
fections, and condescend to claim us as their kindred and 
welcome us to their companionship. 

We are on the shore of a deep, broad river; we are all 
here — the whole family. Our journey is across that river; 
the other shore is invisible ; but one of us can pass at a time, 
and he that passes can never return again. One — it may be 
the youngest — steps into the boat, bids us adieu, and the last 



CONCLUSION. 193 



words we hear are, "We shall all soon meet again on the 
other shore." One by one, after anxious intervals, departs 
for the other shore, and with every departure those that 
remain the more ardently anticipate the time of their de- 
parture. The last is on his way; all his hopes are before 
him; not a motive remains to detain him a moment on the 
desolate shore he is leaving, and the grief of all the partings 
is forgotten in the joy of the meeting. 

Among the strongest motives that bind ns to this earth 
are those of a social nature. We live principally for that 
dear hallowed circle we call our home : this is our earthly 
paradise. Here the sweetest flowers bloom and the richest 
fruits of life are gathered. From its sacred retirement we 
go forth to the business and suffering of life, but to return 
with the means of accumulated bliss. We expend life for 
the security and happiness of home. Let that home be 
wasted by death till the last loved member remains in its 
desolate old walls and the wide world is a land of strangers : 
— what now ? Why, if we are ready, we but wait the bid- 
ding of God to depart, and there are moments when we long 
to depart and go where our sainted ones abide. Amid the 
thousand ills and perils and misfortunes and afflictions, 
troubles and trials, temptations and persecutions, responsi- 
bilities and duties, exposures and uncertainties, disappoint- 
ments and discouragements, hardships and necessities, jeal- 
ousies and emulations, of mortal life, there is one place on 
earth where we freely disclose our hearts, and feel safe; one 
place where we repose in peace and security, which we call 
our own, to which we look from the remotest parts of the 
world ; whose smile is dearer than the applause of admiring 
multitudes ; whose remembrance of us is preferable to in- 
ecriptions upon canvas, marble, or brass ; to which we hope 
to return after the waste of strength and time ; where we 

wish we could live and die; and whose rich treasuries of the 

17 



194 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



heart we wish transferred with us, after death, to the land 
where the flower never fades and the leaf never withers. 
That place is home — a pious home, around which is an en- 
campment of angels in this world of evil and of dangers, 
and an enchantment like that of heaven itself. I know not 
what others may think of it, but I cannot form a perfectly 
congenial idea of heaven till I conceive of it as the happy 
abode of the departed members of my own broken family 
circle. And, consequently, by as much as the social element 
enters into the bliss of heaven should the hope of the hea- 
venly recognition and reunion be an inducement to prepare 
for heaven. 

There are times when we are so much absorbed in the re- 
miniscence of social joys departed, and in the hope of their 
continuance and exaltation in the future state, that for the 
moment we lose sight of every other motive to live for God 
but to rejoin our friends in heaven. And so the very hope 
of recognition and reunion is made the occasion of improving 
in piety and accelerating our motion toward heaven. Every 
pious heart is sensible of the power of this incentive. Let 
others explain it as they may, to my mind it is inconceivable 
how it can be otherwise without extinguishing one of the 
purest emotions of which our social nature is susceptible, 
and disproving the legitimacy of the strongest subordinate 
motive that can govern our conduct in this life. What more 
rational than the supposition that angelic regard for heaven 
is heightened by the gathering together there of the ran- 
somed millions of earth ? Is not heaven thus every hour 
becoming more delightful to angels ? And if it were possi- 
ble for them to dissolve their allegiance to God and relin- 
quish the blessedness of their condition, is not the proba- 
bility that they will do either becoming less and less, as the 
triumphs of the Cross are multiplied and the accumulating 
fruits of redemption are gathered into heaven ? May not 



CONCLUSION. 195 



tlie same be said of tlie saints themselves ? Why, then, 
should not that which is in itself essential to the progressive 
happiness of heaven be a motive in regulating our lives 
here ? On our social nature is the stamp of Grod ; we are 
borne along toward heaven by the holy promptings of our 
social nature with the approbation of Grod ; and we antici- 
pate the consummation of these promptings in the imme- 
diate presence and with the ineffaceable seal of Grod. Yes, 
we hope to meet our friends again ; but we hope to meet 
them in heaven, because that is the place God has prepared 
for them, and where he shall unite us forever. Surely, then, 
a motive with such a source, such an object, such a consum- 
mation, and such an approval, not only must be legitimate 
in the profoundest sense, but influential on our hearts and 
lives to a degree inferior only to that which is supreme. 

The hand of God united us in the tenderest bonds on 
earth, and, pointing upward, he said, " I will affix the eter- 
nal seal there." That seal cannot be affixed if we are not 
there. Oh, it must be a moment of ineffable joy to those who 
are reunited by God's own hand in that ^ure and lovely 
land. May such a moment be ours ! It will be a part of 
our reward. Let us live for it. We live for it when we 
live for God. Duty is plain. We take up every imperish- 
able interest in the discharge of duty. The hope of reunion 
brightens as love for God increases. Holiness quickens the 
motion of our souls to the place where our holy dead await 
our arrival. The light of the gospel only can guide us to 
their presence : let us follow that light. They are with God, 
because they are like God. There is no higher flight of 
hope than to be like God, and the resemblance is the sure 
guarantee of reunion with our sainted friends and relations. 
Let us be well prepared to go, that, when we leave, we may 
not be like one running into every room in the house to see 
if he has left nothing he shall need by the way. 



196 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



2. The hope of recognition and reunion is a source of the 
purest consolation. 

The unutterable grief we feel in the loss of our dear kin- 
dred would be an astounding mystery indeed if the gospel 
furnished us with no explanation and no relief. For every 
other necessity of our immortal nature abundant provision 
is made by the Father of our spirits. The wants of our 
mortal bodies, and the wants of our spiritual nature, are all 
provided for; and we never can believe that our social nature 
is doomed to languish in hopeless bereavement or to indulge 
anticipations destined to disappointment. If one pure ra- 
tional inquiry of the soul found no response in the gospel of 
Christ, we would pronounce that gospel incomplete. But 
the gospel, as we have endeavored to show in this treatise, 
reveals so clearly the doctrine of future recognition and re- 
union, that failure to derive unspeakable consolation from it 
must be ascribable to a sense of our worldliness or moral 
insensibility. No truth of the gospel, however clearly re- 
vealed and firmly believed, can be consolatory, unless it find 
a response in a heart already holy or seeking holiness. To 
the unregenerate, it is true, our subject is one of deepest 
interest ; but to the regenerate, whose hearts are already in 
motion toward heaven, it is full of comfort, because they 
are going to the place where they shall meet their sainted 
dead. 

It is a consolation to us to know that with our pious dead 
the bitterness of death is past. The career for glory with 
them is run. Their probation is over. Their exalted spirits 
are thrilled with the consciousness that their destiny is set- 
tled forever in heaven. They are the companions of angels, 
and converse with them and sing with them, and are ready 
to teach us all they have learned in heaven when we shall 
rejoin them. They are the companions of saints, and so are 
in the most congenial society in the universe. They are en- 



CONCLUSION. 197 



gaged in the noblest employments and services. They live 
in a temple of which God is the master-builder, Christ the 
supporting pillar, the Spirit the central light, the songs of crea- 
tion and redemption the choral melody, immortality the sur- 
rounding walls, angels the sleepless watchmen, infinity the 
boundless range, and eternity the endless day. There they 
live; and why should we wish to live with them, and think 
so much of them, and yet imagine that they do not think as 
much of us and wish us to live with them ? What remains ? 
That we meet them again, and see them face to face, and be 
with them forever. And this shall be so after a little while. 
Let us meditate on the future reunion. The very grief 
we feel in bereavement is uniting us the more closely to 
the departed, and so is preparing us for the happier meet- 
ing. The more we think of them and love them in this life, 
the more we shall love them in heaven. We consider the 
flowers that bloom on their graves as too sacred to be 
gathered by mortal hands ; and this tender care is expres- 
sive of the intensity and purity of our devotion, and indica- 
tive of our joy when we meet their loved forms on the other 
side of the land of graves. There is a sort of omnipresence 
connected with them, or, rather, wherever we go they seem 
to be with us. The bonds of love and friendship are un- 
broken ; the spirit of love and friendship still lives, though 
the friends and loving ones are invisible. Every thing 
imaginable of innocence and beauty on earth or in heaven is 
associated with them. And if we interpret nature, provi- 
dence, the gospel, and humanity, aright, every thing will 
reveal the impress of hope and shed a cheering light upon 
our path to immortality ; what, then, must be the realization 
of the hope and the possession of the world which that light 
reveals ! Birds of beautiful plumage greeted Columbus 
several days before he caught a glimpse of the new world; 

so, in our holy visions, 

17* 



198 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



A thousand wings are hovering o'er 
The dazzling wave and the golden shore. 

Imagine a saint about to enter heaven : what are his 
first expectations? Why, that he will find there those 
whom he loves most and knows best. His supreme expec- 
tation is that he will see Christ, and next he expects to 
see his pious relations and friends. He knows he will see 
a great many others, but as yet he does not know who they 
are, and hence can form no definite idea of his meeting with 
them. He expects to fly past millions of the ransomed and 
angelic orders to the embraces of those he loved and knew 
best on earth. Why should it not be so? I do not know 
that we will stop to form new friendships till we have re- 
newed our old ones, or that we will seek new objects of love 
till we have found our former ones. 

Oh the rapture of the first meeting ! How many a parent 
has followed child after child to the grave till all were gone I 

f Yes ; parted thus they rest, who played 
Beneath the same green treej 
Whose voices mingled as they prayed' 
Around one parent knee. 

One bitter blast blew all away. 

But, true as my very being here, they are all in heaven, 
and the explanation of the separation heightens the rapture 
of the reunion. How often have we looked upon our loved 
ones reposing in death, and wondered — 

Is this death's seal? The impression, oh how fair! 
Look, what a radiant smile is playing there ! 
That was the soul's farewell. 

And sweeter smile than that, or than was ever given by that 
sleeping face, will be the smile of greeting in the heavenly 
meeting. 

How often, in the stillness of eventide, or in the hour of 
holy meditation, amid the deep hush of his soul, has the 



CONCLUSION. 199 



bereaved husband looked aloft to the lovely land of his 
sainted wife, and indulged in a reverie in which his wife 
seemed listening to his inquiries ! — 

Will not thy own meek heart demand me there ? — 
That heart whose fondest throbs to me were given ? 

My name on earth was ever in thy prayer; 

Shall it be banished from thy tongue in heaven? 

In meadows fanned by heaven's life-breathing wind, 
In the resplendence of that glorious sphere 

And larger movements of the unfettered mind, '' 

Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here? 

The love that lived through all the stormy past, y 

And meekly with my harsher nature bore, 
And deeper grew, and tenderer, to the last. 

Shall it expire with life, and be no more? 

Yet, though thou wear'st the glory of the sky, 
Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name. 

The same fair thoughtful brow, and gentle eye. 
Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the same ? 

Shalt thou not teach me, in that calmer home, 

The wisdom that I learned so ill in this — 
The wisdom which is love — till I become 
^ Thy fit companion in that land of bliss ? 

Come, this is not fancy. It is the melody of the aflfec- 
tions, sweeter than the 

Low love-tones of angels 
From the starry skies around; 

and that wife will clasp you again to her pure bosom, and 
tell you it is all a celestial reality. How pleasant the light 
on the grave where she sleeps ! How sacred the spot — it 
may be far away over hill, and river, and mountain — where 
she reposes ! How endeared the distant dwelling in which you 
spent with her so many happy years, and where, on the lawn 
and in the fields and groves about it, your children rambled 



200 RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN. 



and sported ! Oh, she lives forever, thank God ! and there 

is joy reserved in heaven for you. Blessed man, be faithful. 

/ Earth's fame is a bubble, and its wealth vanity^ She is 

»-^ with the holy God, and his holy angels, and his holy saints ; 

and may you in the end be with her ! ^' Victory V was on 

her dying lips. May the same shout of triumph be heard 

on your death-pillow ! The children may you 

Allure to brighter worlds, 
And lead the way. 

Header, my pleasant task is nearly done. A few words 
more, and it is done. This life, I have said, is but a part 
of our being — its infancy, — in tears, but in hope. The 
boundless, blissful future is before us. Here friendship is 
interrupted by death; there it will be perpetual. Here 
our attention is divided by interests of a temporal nature, 
pressing and constantly recurring; there all these will have 
no existence, and, in the endless rest of heaven, nothing can 
interfere with our reciprocity. Here a thousand solicitudes 
for each other's welfare accompany us through life; there 
security is so complete that solicitude is impossible. Here 
friendship is founded in a fallen and imperfect nature; 
there it will have its basis in an exalted and perfect nature. 
Here we are often separated from each other by the allot- 
ments of divine providence; there our work will be done, 
and scattered members of the family will be united in the 
same blessed place. Here we are often separated for years, 
and sometimes our friends die in a distant land; there, 
anywhere we are at home with each other, and if on divine 
missions we be sent, we know return is certain. Here one 
after another of the circles of hope and friendship departs 
till all are gone; there they all meet who have been pious, 
and shall never be separated again. Here no language can 
express how much we love each other; there this will be 
done with the clearness of open vision. Here we are 







'C^ C/^ f 



CONCLUSION. 



201 



a mutual support and comfort; there we shall be a 
mutual joy. Here old friendships are seldom lasting and 
new ones seldom formed; there old friendships can never 
be broken up, and new ones will be formed with the endless 
circles of saints and angels. Here our mansions have often 
been the abodes of grief and saddest bereavement, and we 
have deserted them at last because those we loved were re- 
moved by death; there our mansions will be the abodes of 
perpetual joy, and we will never desert them, because those 
we love will never leave iis, and the charm of their company 
will be heightened by the perfection of holiness. Here 
every affection has its pang and its tone of sadness at the 
foot of the cross; there every affection will rise to its maturity 
in blessedness, and have its strain in the song of grateful 
praise, adoration, and love, before the throne. By the way 
of the cross, the grave, and the skies, lies our path to the 
company of our sainted ones. ^^ Arise, let us go hence." 



C^ 



t iULla^ ^ ' 








35N©. 



t-'k L 



/^-^ -. 



0. 



l^ 



,K^ n 



(Tw 



fh.^\ 



^: 



tkS' 



/^t/V 



^ :.*~" ^ C 



c tfC3bs<L^ 



-.. V^* 



H 152 82 





















^ •'*• ^^^ 

^ <i'^ *mi/)k\ U ^ *'^ 








^0^ 
^ ^ ^ Ap " 




^ 




t • o . ^> 



, '^ ^^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

L** '^^^ ^ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

/I \ «<*• V Treatment Date: August 2005 

'^* cy "^A. PreservationTechnologles 



^/ 'V r* %'0iS?.* KxT* '^ct. Preservation lechnoiogies 

* '\ ^ *^\j\\* (y v5 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

<J^* « * • * '<^ f»> ^ ' • <• * '^^ Thomson Park Drive 






(724)779-2111 











lO-7»^ 



• M O 







.-^^^ 











.<»• 








.^<^^ 







*^ . 





°o 







.<!► 










•1^^ 






^o. 



^^ MAY 82 I ^^' -P^ -.J 



N. MANCHESTER, 
1^ INDIANA 46962 








^>t. <-^' 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 651 462 5 



ii"* 






t >** 



{Ov 



>>,>.i 






